For the first time since the 2011 crisis, Portugal announced that in the first ten months of the last year, it has had fewer tourists than in the first ten months of 2017. These are the first worrying news for Portugal tourism in a long time. As in Spain, Portugal has marginally benefited from the tourism crisis especially in Turkey, which finally seems to have come to an end and tourism falls.
The Portuguese statistics office has reported that tourist overnight stays in their hotels fell 0.1%, down from 11.4 million, whereas last year, this figure rose by 12%. If tourism experts are trying to find a scapegoat, just take a look at Britain. The British tourism falls more than any other destination.
After reporting seven years of growth that could, at times, be described as “uncontrollable”, 2018 did not improve compared to last year, with a minimum change to the downside. Despite of this, income has somewhat risen by 6%, a third of the trend we saw last year.
The outlook for 2019 is not better. In fact, forecasts are worse. It is expected that there may be a setback because reservations from issuing countries are not going well. In other words, customers are visiting Turkey and destinations in the Eastern Mediterranean more than ever.
Travelers from many countries that visit Portugal, except the Spanish, reduced the length of their trips this year, although very moderately. The British fell by 9%, leading the trend, followed by German visitors. Americans increase, but they represent a minority for the country’s tourism.
