Hotel business invoices almost 300 million in two months

  • ECO News
  • 13 April 2018

Tourism growth rhythm is half of what is was registered one year ago, but the sector continues to break records. Between January and February, the hotel business received more than 2 million guests.

The tourism growth rhythm is slowing its pace, but the sector continues breaking records. The Portuguese hotel business received, in January and February, more than two million guests, which corresponded to around 5.5 million in overnight stays. All on all, in just two months, the hotel business invoiced almost 300 million euros, which is a new record.

These data were disclosed this Friday by INE (Statistics Portugal). In total, there were 2,171,900 guests and 5,459,700 overnight stays in January and February, corresponding to 5.2% and 5.6% increases, respectively. One year ago, both these indicators were rising at a 10% rate. In spite of the decrease, numbers continue registering very high levels.

Foreign tourists contributed the most to these increases. Guests from abroad totaled over one million guests and 3.8 million overnight stays. Yet, the Portuguese are increasing their time in hotels: in January and February, the average stay of Portuguese residents was 1.65 nights, a 2.6% increase, and foreigners stayed for an average of 3.25 nights, a 1% decrease.

The occupancy rate is also increasing, standing at 33.4% in the first two months of 2018, representing a 1.3 percentage points’ increase.

What continues rising at an accelerated pace is the price charged by hotels. In this period, the average income per room available was 27.1 euros, 9.9% more than last year.

All in all, the overall income from the hotel business rose to 290.8 million euros, an 11.8% homologous increase.