Tour operator TUI has announced the creation of 20 new cruise services docking at Lanzarote from summer 2012 at the FITUR trade fair in Madrid. Whilst Ryanair has unveiled the eleven new routes to the island that they will start operating from this April, encompassing destinations in mainland Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany, the UK and Eire.

The Society for the External Promotion of Lanzarote (SPEL) and the Tourist Board has been meeting with representatives from TUI this week at the International Tourist Fair (FITUR) in Madrid. And from next summer a total of twenty TUI cruises will be docking at Puerto Marmoles.

Elsewhere at FITUR, Ms Gonzalez and Hector Fernandez, head of the SPEL, had further talks with the low cost airline, Ryanair, about its forthcoming base on the island and the eleven new routes which the company will be introducing from April.

This will open up air travel for residents on Lanzarote as well as creating new tourist connections, with direct flights between the island and Valencia, Seville, Santiago, Santander, Valladolid and Zaragoza in Spain and also Venice, Eindhoven, Baden-Baden, Leeds and Knock.

In addition easyJet also confirmed that they plan to reinstate their flights between Madrid and Lanzarote, after announcing earlier this week that the service was being pulled. At the same time other new routes with the express intention of expanding the French tourist market by introducing flights between Lanzarote and Lyon. Milan and Basle are also being considered as possibilities.