Tourist overnight stays increase 45.2% in 2021, 46.6% less than 2019

Tourist accommodation recorded 14.5 million guests and 37.5 million overnight stays in 2021, corresponding to increases of 39.4% and 45.2%, according to preliminary data from Statistics Portugal (INE), released on Monday.

However, compared to the same period in 2019, guests decreased by 46.4% and overnight stays decreased by 46.6% (-10.9% in residents and -62.0% in non-residents).

In 2021, all regions recorded decreases in overnight stays, compared to 2019, mainly due to reductions in non-residents, although there were increases in overnight stays by residents in Madeira (+19.2%) and the Algarve (+5.1%).

The United Kingdom remained the main issuing market in 2021, representing 16.6% of overnight stays by non-residents, and increased 54.6% compared to the previous year, followed by the Spanish (share of 14.3%), German (11.9%) and French (11.8%) markets.

Looking at December 2021, the tourism accommodation sector recorded 1.1 million guests and 2.6 million overnight stays, which corresponds to increases of 150% and 170.4%, respectively (+265.0% and +287.2% in November, in the same order).

The figures achieved in the last month of the year were, however, lower than those recorded in the same month of 2019, with reductions of 28.9% in guests and 26.7% in overnight stays.

In that month, the domestic market contributed 1.1 million overnight stays (+92.6%) and external markets totalled 1.5 million (+292.5%).

Compared to December 2019, there were decreases in both resident (-12.2%) and non-resident (-34.9%) overnight stays.

In the last month of 2021, 36% of tourist accommodation establishments were closed or did not record guest movement (34.8% in November).