Tourism in The Canary Islands - Tourist Attractions

Tourist Attractions

The Canary Islands have 257 kilometres of beaches . Despite the small area of the seven main islands (7,447 km2), they have very diverse landscapes, including long sandy beaches, spectacular cliffs, deserts, and woods. Pico del Teide is the highest mountain in Spain, with a height of 3,718 m, is located on Tenerife They have four national parks, four biosphere reserves (Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and La Palma), and more than 140 other protected areas. Visitors in the national parks are not permitted to leave defined paths or to camp in the parks.

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands. Tourist attractions here include nightlife, walking, and whale-and bird-watching. Loro Parque (meaning "Parrot Park") on Tenerife has a collection of 3,000 parrots. However, most of these parrots cannot be seen by visitors. There is another facility south of the main park where approximately 330 parrots species are kept and a breeding program takes place. Other attractions in the park include alligators, chimpanzees, jaguars, penguins, porpoises, Killer Whales, sharks, and tigers.

Gran Canaria has the biggest city in the canary islands, Las Palmas. Gran Canaria receives approximately 4 million tourists every year .Maspalomas is one of the most famous tourist atraccions and the largest tourist town in the Canary islands. This island is considered to have the best weather in the Canary Islands ands some of the best beaches of Europe (Playa del Ingles, Las Canteras, etc). Gran Canaria has near 50% of its territory declared an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This island is usually called "a continent in miniature" because of the diversity of its landscapes.

Lanzarote, the most northeasterly of the Canary Islands, has been designated an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It has an arid volcanic landscape and there are about 300 volcanic cones on the island. The island has a low-key approach to tourism and the traditional architecture of island's interior are taken into consideration. This approach was influenced by the artist César Manrique, who was from Lanzarote. Manrique created works in Lanzarote and the other islands, including Jardin de Cactus, an amphitheatre-shaped garden with ten thousand cacti and stone sculptures. A 26-foot-high (7.9 m) cactus sculpted from metal by Manrique is located by the entrance to the garden.

In late 2009 the Canary Islands Tourist Board launched a marketing campaign called "Operation No Winter Blues". 100 Canarian residents aged between 18 and 35 were selected to be ambassadors for the Islands. The campaign is based on the original name of the Fortunate Islands, with the ambassadors sharing the islands' good fortune with selected countries. The campaign involves the 100 citizens traveling to 14 European destinations spreading positive news about the Canaries and lasted until mid December.