Portuguese hotel business registers 32 million overnight stays by July
Between January and July, Portuguese hotels had 9.6% more overnight stays than in the previous year. Even so, tourists are spending less time in the country.
Until July of 2017, Portuguese hotel businesses received around 11.6 million guests, who were responsible for 32.1 million overnight stays. These numbers correspond to a growth of 9.6% and 8.5%, respectively, in comparison to the same period of last year. Even so, tourists stayed less time in the accommodations.
The data disclosed this Thursday by Statistics Portugal (INE) also points to a 17.3% increase in the invoice of these accommodations, with a total income of 1.8 billion euros. In July alone, they invoiced 428 million euros, a 13.1% increase in comparison to the previous month.
Tourists stay less time in the country
Overnight stays and guest numbers continue increasing, which means that the net occupancy rate also increased three percentage points to 50.1%. Even so, in the first seven months of 2016, tourist stayed longer in Portuguese accommodations — on the contrary, the average visit for the same period of this year fell 1% to 2.78 nights.
When only considering July, in comparison to June, there was a deceleration in the growth of overnight stays (6.9 million) and guests (2.2 million). INE does not provide any justification for this result, although June is typically the most popular among tourists.
Azores grew the most, Algarve was the favorite destiny
In July, Portuguese residents registered two million overnight stays, recovering growth (3.0%, in comparison to the 0.4% fall in June). On the other hand, the external market decelerated, growing 5.4% in comparison to June’s 10.2% growth. Nonetheless, that market was the most significant for Portugal, accounting for 4.9 million of the overnight stays.
The British stand among those who prefer to take vacation in Portugal, representing 23.2% of foreigner overnight stays. The Spanish represent 11% and the German 10.5% of the total of foreign guests. The Brazilian market stood out, growing 53.6%, and the North American one grew 30.0%.
The favorite Portuguese regions both for residents and non residents was Algarve, which added up to 40.5% of overnight stays. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area accounted for 21.2% overnight stays.
Overnight stays grew in every region, but the Azores stand out with a 18.6% growth, to 243 thousand overnight stays. The Center also grew 14.9%, registering 626 thousand overnight stays.
