Tourism broke its records, although average salaries plummeted
Overnight stays increased, the number of guests increased, the occupancy rates increased, income increased. The average salaries plummeted. To summarize, this was the Portuguese Tourism in 2016.
The data disclosed last week in the report by the Statistics Portugal (INE) confirms that tourism has once again broken last year’s records: tourism in Portugal had one of the best performances in Europe.
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Portuguese hotel businesses welcomed around 19 million guests (out of which more than 11 million were foreigners), which corresponded to 53.5 million overnight stays. The amount of guests increased 9.8% when compared to 2015, while overnight-stays increased 9.6%.
On the other hand, tourism income in Portugal had a 10.7% increased. Last year, the profit made by tourism was 12.68 billion euros and the hospitality business’ gains ascended almost to 3 billion euros, a 17% increase.
As for employment in the sector, there was a 7.9% increase when comparing the population employed in the sector in 2015, going up to 279,200 workers in 2016. Between 2015 and 2016, 20 thousand job positions were created, although it is precarious employment that is rising. The average salary decreased in comparison to last year: employees’ average net wage income was 614 euros per month, one euro less than in 2015.
