Nights spent in tourist accommodation increase 3.4% in 2019-Eurostat

The number of nights spent in tourist establishments rose by 3.4% in Portugal in 2019, above the EU average of 2.4%, with the percentage of foreign guests increasing by 2.6%, according to Eurostat.

According to data released on Friday by the official EU statistics office, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU reached 3.2 billion in 2019, an increase of 2.4% over the previous year.

In Portugal, last year the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation increased by 3.4% to 76.9 million, an increase of 3.6 million over 2018, double the increase between 2017 and 2018 (1.7%).

Eurostat data showed that, of the 76.9 million overnight stays in Portugal during 2019, 51.1 million were foreign guests (2.6% more than in 2018) and 25.8 million residents (which represents an even more marked increase of 5%).

Last year, Spain again had the highest number of overnight stays (469 million, up 0.5% on 2018), followed by France (446 million, up 0.8%), Germany (436 million, up 4%) and Italy (433 million, up 0.9%), the latter two countries have reversed positions compared to 2018.

The biggest rises compared to 2018 were recorded in Slovakia (up 12.6%), Lithuania (10%), the Netherlands (6.8%), the United Kingdom (5.7%) and Romania (5.6%), while the biggest falls were seen in Greece (down 3.0%) and Malta (-2.7%).

Between 2018 and 2019, for the Union as a whole, overnight stay growth was the same for residents as for non-residents: 2.4% in both cases.