Partnering with our destinations – Tenerife

We’re committed to sustainable tourism in our destinations to ensure we bring shared social and financial value, while protecting local culture, history and natural environment.

Recently, Carnival UK and P&O Cruises President Paul Ludlow was warmly welcomed by the President and Minister for Tourism of the Canary Islands, President Fernando Clavijo Batlle and Minister Jessica del Carmen De Leon Verdugo, and met with the Head of the Government of Tenerife, President Rosa Dávila. P&O Cruises also hosted a local stakeholder event on Azura on her call to Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Our ships are a significant source of tourism in Tenerife and we’re proud of our long history serving the Canary Islands, a valued destination by our guests. As a home port operation, Tenerife is the gateway to the Canaries and a key destination visited by the entire P&O Cruises fleet each year.

In 2025, the Islands will account for around 170 calls, for over 550,000 guests, by Carnival Corporation. 75 of these calls will be by P&O Cruises alone, providing extraordinary holiday experiences to over 250,000 guests. A further 20,000 guests will visit on calls by Cunard ships and, significantly, Carnival Corporation also operates its cruise terminal in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

As an important and ongoing step towards strengthening our local relationships, our Corporate Affairs and Sustainability teams are taking a partnership approach to meet with many local organisations. These include councillors and officials from the Municipal Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna University, an environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) that we work with to organise beach cleans, and the tourism authority of the Canary Islands.

During the discussions, sustainability and economic impact featured prominently. We heard direct from politicians that they are keen to grow cruise tourism and want Carnival UK to bring more guests to the Islands. At the same time, they are keen to collaborate on communications to the local communities. The Islands have experienced protests against mass tourism, driven by concerns around housing and the cost of living. They are also a sensitive environmental habitat, with Spain hosting one third of the biodiversity in the EU, half of which is in the Canary Islands, so public awareness around biodiversity is high.

Having celebrated our enduring legacy in Tenerife, our Corporate Affairs and Sustainability teams will work together to follow up on these important discussions by sharing information about our operations and impacts and understand how we can collaborate more closely with local stakeholders on the opportunities and challenges identified.

Through these relationships and our actions, we are demonstrating a commitment to Tenerife and its people to deliver sustainable, economic, cultural and social value for the wider community.