From January to September of this year, the Portuguese tourism industry received around 16.5 million visitors and recorder close to 46 million overnight stays. Thus said, the industry in the country is beginning to slow down, albeit slightly, as the fall in terms of overnight stays is 0.5%, according to official data.
While the number of overnight stays decreased, the number of guests continues to grow, more precisely by 1.3% compared to last year. Last September, hotels and other accommodation facilities registered 2.2 million guests and 6.2 million overnight stays. This is an increase of 0.2% and decrease of 1.3%, respectively. Last August, the changes also reflected similar trends, 1% and -1.3%, in the same order.
Domestic tourism on a rise
As in the previous month, in September, guests were mainly residents of Portugal (+5.7%), while the inflow of foreign visitors fell by 2.7%. In overnight stays there is a similar tourism slowdown, with 4.9% less foreign overnight stays, while domestic ones registered an increase of 9%.
As for the typology of the accommodation facilities, overnight stays in hotels – which represent 69.1% of the total – decreased by 0.7%. On the contrary, there was a growth in tourist apartments, as well as the positive evolution in tourist villages.
A summer decline
During the summer months, from June to September, the Portuguese industry received 8.9 million guests. This represents a decrease of more than 25 thousand guests compared to the same period last year. This summer 26.5 million overnight stays were registered in Portugal, while last year more than 27 million were monitored. All in all, from June to September, more than 500 million fewer guests slept in Portugal.