Domestic tourism down 20% in Q1, 70% in March

Residents in Portugal made 3.7 million trips in the first quarter, which corresponded to a drop of 20%, after an increase of 9.3% in the last quarter of 2019, according to data released on Monday by Statistics Portugal (INE).

According to the INE, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the declaration of a state of emergency in March contributed to the 70% decrease in that month, which justified the decrease observed in the quarter, given that travels had increased 8.4% and 5.2% respectively in January and February.

“Despite this decrease, there was a very significant increase in the number of nights spent outside the usual environment by tourists in March: 9.2 nights, compared to 3.96 in February and 3.86 in January,” he said.