Algarve hotel occupancy rate in February at 48.7%, highest in 16 years

The occupancy rate per room in in hotels and tourist resorts in Portugal’s Algarve region in February reached its highest for the month in 16 years, at 48.7%, its main sector association revealed on Monday.

The Algarve Hotels and Tourism Developments Association (AHETA), based in Albufeira, in Faro district, released provisional monthly data compiled by its research office and highlighted that with the 43.7% rate “the Algarve in February surpassed the values recorded for the occupancy rate per room since 2007.”

The figure represents an increase of 5.4 percentage points on February 2019, a year in which tourism activity broke records in the region, AHETA said in a statement. It was also “2.1 percentage points higher than in February 2020, the last month before the start of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic” that would have a devastating effect on tourism activity for the next two years.

“Compared to the same month in 2020, when Carnival was on the 25th [of February], the markets that contributed most to the increase were the domestic, with 1.4 percentage points more, the Netherlands and UK, both with 0.9 percentage points more, and the US, with 0.5 percentage points more,” said the association.

It also noted that, compared to February 2020, Praia da Rocha in the municipality of Portimão was the area in the region that contributed most to the largest year-on-year increase in February of the last 16 years, with a 16.5-point increase.

It was followed by the areas of Monte Gordo/Vila Real de Santo António and Tavira, whose occupancy rates were up 11.1 and 7.2 points respectively, AHETA said.