Growth in tourism slows down, but hotels’ invoice keeps increasing

  • ECO News
  • 13 October 2017

Prices per room keep increasing - and quite a lot. Between January and August, the average revenue per available room was 51.7 euros; one year ago, it was 44.1 euros.

Tourism continues to register a larger growth than other economic indicators, but it is slowing down. In the first eight months of the year, the number of guests and overnight stays increased at a slower pace than in the same period of last year, but the same was not true for income. Between January and August, hotels’ income increased more than they had last year, which means prices continue increasing.

Between January and August, according to data disclosed this Friday by Statistics’ Portugal (INE), the Portuguese hotel business received a little over 14 million guests, responsible for over 39.9 million overnight stays. These numbers correspond to homologous increases of 8.6% and 7.4%, respectively. In the same period of last year, those indicators had increased 9.4% and 8.9%.

Both the internal and external markets justify this decrease. The internal market contributed with a little over 11 million overnight stays, 3.4% more than one year ago (which represents a deceleration in comparison to last year’s 4.3% growth). As for the external market, it corresponded to 28.7 million overnight stays, a 9.1% homologous increase, far from the 10.9% increase from the same period of 2016.

On the other hand, the time tourists stayed in hotel units is also slightly falling. The average time as 2.85 nights in that period, an homologous decrease of 1.1%.

All in all, the Portuguese hotel business invoiced a total of 2.3 billion euros in the first eight months of the year, a 16.1% increase. One year ago, the turnover was increasing 15.9%.

This means that room prices are increasing, and quite a lot: between January and August, the average revenue per available room was 51.7 euros, while one year ago, it stood at 44.1 euros.