Lanzarote Night at Dublin’s Mansion House: The Canaries’ Best Island Touted as New Home from Home for St Patrick & Digital Nomads

ITTN’s Geoff Percival was only too happy to sample the best in Lanzarote wine and hospitality, at Dublin’s Mansion House last night, as Lanzarote Tourism and the Lanzarote Ireland Network – outlined their vision of making the Canary island even more popular with Irish holidaymakers; which is an ambitious aim, given how hugely popular the island already is with Irish sunseekers.

The guest of honour, on the night, was the President of Lanzarote’s Regional Government/President of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, who seems very eager to strengthen the already strong tourism ties between Ireland and Lanzarote.

The Canary Islands, as a whole, are a sun worshippers’ dream and every year Lanzarote fights off stern opposition from its neighbouring Canaries Tenerife, Gran Canaria and the nearby Fuerteventura to win the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Irish holidaymakers, who fly in to Arrecife and head straight for the island’s top resorts such as Costa Teguise, Puerta del Carmen and Playa Blanca.

Last year saw Lanzarote comfortably outrank its Canary cousins in terms of popularity amongst Irish holidaymakers, with more than 300,000 of us making the journey to what is, arguably, the most beautiful of the archipelagos islands.

But, Lanzarote Tourism is certainly not resting on its laurels. President Betancort suggested the desire to boost tourism numbers through Ireland by doing more to tap into the lucrative Ireland-US stopover flight networks.

Also, the Spanish island is looking to become a home from home for St Patrick’s Day celebrations; Puerto del Carmen set to run its second annual St Patrick’s Day Festival this year (www.sanpatrickpuertodelcarmen.com) from March 15-17. So, for those that can’t get to Rome to see Ireland claim the Grand Slam, you know where to go instead…

The third big message of the night was that Lanzarote is putting out the call for Irish digital nomads, in a bid to boost tourism numbers by enticing remote workers to temporarily move to the island and get a dose of Vitamin D while they work.