Tourism imports, exports sky-rocket in July
The Bank of Portugal (BoP) says expenditure by foreign tourists in Portugal and Portuguese tourists abroad increased 137% and 63% in July.
Expenditure by foreign tourists in Portugal and Portuguese tourists abroad increased 137% and 63%, respectively, in July, in year-on-year terms, exceeding the values recorded in the same month of 2019, the Bank of Portugal (BoP) said on Tuesday.
“In July 2022, the preliminary indicator of travel and tourism points to the maintenance of sharp growth compared to the same period last year, due to the context of restrictions on the international movement of people that were in force in 2021,” the Bank of Portugal (BoP) said.
It stated, “the indicator suggests a 137% growth in exports versus July 2021 (after a 164% variation in June) and a 63% growth in imports (74% variation in June).”
The July figures are also above those recorded in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, with exports at 120% and imports at 121% of the respective statistics observed in July 2019.
Regarding the year-to-date values until July 2022, exports and imports also exceed the amounts recorded in the same period of 2019, corresponding to 111% and 102% of the value at that time.
The series presented today are preliminary figures for the year-on-year rate of change for spending by foreign tourists in Portugal (also called exports or credits) and for spending by residents in Portugal when they travel to other countries (also called imports or debits).
As the central bank explained, “this information is based on more restricted information, predominantly from bank cards, and does not replace the historical series of exports and imports of travel and tourism published in BPstat, which can be found in the domain of external statistics | balance of payments”.
The BoP will next update the preliminary indicator of travel and tourism of the balance of payments on 30 September.