Tenerife is dependent on tourism for much of its commercial activity and is working hard to overcome the issues presented by the recession. Resort improvements and hotel renovations are taking place all over the island. Reduced consumer spending power has meant a drop in tourist numbers for many destinations across Europe, with some places seeing as much as a quarter of previous trade disappearing.

Tenerife has been less affected and is only experiencing a drop of around 10 per cent based on 2008 figures. What is more encouraging is that British visitors still regard Tenerife as a worthy place to spend their holidays. While the levels of German and Scandinavian visitors to Tenerife during September 2009 dropped by around 19 per cent, British visitor numbers saw only a 4 per cent reduction. The southern areas of Tenerife are still proving more popular than the north.

Looking back on the figures for the Summer of 2009, over 1.6 million people chose Tenerife as their holiday destination, with just a third of those people coming from Spain. Delving into those figures does reveal another big north-south divide because the south of Tenerife actually saw visitor numbers increase over last year. It seems the reduction of visitors to the north of Tenerife is solely responsible for the negative figures.

However, despite these encouraging statistics, Tenerife still has plenty of capacity with occupation rates only at 55 per cent during the summer. That means there is plenty of choice for visitors, bargains are still likely to be found and of course the resorts will not be too crowded. Tenerife is still a favourite destination for a winter sun break and already this year over 4 million people have visited Tenerife for a holiday.

You can get flights to Tenerife with flythomascook.com from a choice of 12 different UK airports during the winter period.