Could the clouds finally be lifting on Lanzarote?  After a year of successive double digit decreases in visitor numbers the rate of decline in tourist arrivals halved last month on this popular holiday island.  According to the latest figures just released by the Spanish airport operators AENA, with the German market – Lanzarote´s second largest – even recording positive growth for the first time this year.

The latest passenger figures from AENA reveal that the number of foreign tourists arriving on flights to Lanzarote fell last month by ‘just 8.17%’ - a figure almost half that of previous months this year, suggesting that there may at last be signs of optimism for the many overseas owners of apartments and villas in Lanzarote.

Lanzarote has been hit particularly hard by the current recession as the island is much more dependent on tourism than most other regions of Spain. a vulnerability that has been further compounded by a reliance on British visitors who in previous years have accounted for around 60% of all arrivals.

The British market – Lanzarote´s largest by some distance – has been in freefall this year with the effects of the credit crunch further amplified by the ongoing weakness of sterling against the euro - a dangerous double whammy that has resulted in a 20% falls in visitor numbers from the UK, a figure some way ahead of the 16% average for all other national markets.

AENA´s latest figures however suggest that there may at last be a ray of light on the horizon.  As the rate of decline in arrivals halved last month to just 8.17%, with the island welcoming a total of 124,673 foreign tourists – down from 1341,556 for the same ten month period in 2008.

Best of all, the latest statists reveal that for the first time this year a major market has retuned some positive growth, with the number of German tourist arrivals actually rising last month - up from 19,912 arrivals in October 2008 to 20,418.

British arrivals have fallen to 69,224 arrivals from 76,051 visitors over the same period, whilst arrivals from Eire - Lanzarote´s third largest market – fell from 17,078 passengers in October last year to 15,411 last month.

However the slowdown in the rate of decline suggests that this may at least be the beginning of the end of the recession.  And this slightly more positive outlook has also been reflected in a fall in the rate of decline in occupancy levels in the islands’ hotels too, as last month the number of beds filled dropped by less than 9% - an enormous improvement on earlier this year when Lanzarote hotels were struggling to cope with their lowest occupancy levels in over forty years and falls of over 30%.