(News in update)
Last year, Portugal came close to matching the records broken in 2019 in the tourism sector. According to preliminary data on tourist activity, published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in the whole of the year tourist accommodation establishments registered 26.5 million guests and 69.5 million overnight stays. Compared to 2019, before the pandemic, the number of guests decreased by 2.3% and overnight stays decreased by 0.9%. Compared to 2021, a year still heavily affected by covid-19, the increases were 83.3% and 86.3%, respectively.
According to the INE, in 2022 there were increases in overnight stays by residents in all regions, compared to 2019. Regarding overnight stays by non-residents, it was in the Azores (+5.1%), in Madeira (+4.5%) . and in the North (+4.3%), which registered the greatest increases. Conversely, Center (-13.1%) and Algarve (-11.3%) had the largest falls. In total, overnight stays by non-residents decreased by 5% compared to 2019, while overnight stays by residents increased by 8.6%.
Contrary to what happened in 2020 and 2021, last year the overnight stays of non-residents already exceeded those of residents, with 67% of the total, “although slightly below the weight they had in 2019”, points out the INE, which was 69.9%. of the total.
Over the year as a whole, overnight stays in hotels are 1.4% below 2019 and 4.1% less in local accommodation. Rural space and housing was the only segment that exceeded pre-pandemic values, with 32.5% more overnight stays compared to 2019.
The main source market for visitors in 2022 was the United Kingdom, with 19.3% of overnight stays by non-residents, a value almost three times higher than in 2021, but still 4% lower than in 2019. from Germany, (11 ,5%). Spain (10.8%) and France (9.3%). The greatest growth was registered in the North American market, which had a weight of 7.5% in 2022, having increased by 327.4% compared to the same period and 26.9% compared to 2019.
Looking only at December, the figures already exceed those of 2019. The tourist accommodation sector registered 1.6 million guests and 3.7 million overnight stays, representing increases of 1.9% and 5.5%, respectively, compared to the last month of 2019. In the same period of 2021, the increases were 44.2% in guests and 44.6% in overnight stays.
The domestic market contributed 1.4 million overnight stays, slightly less than half, having increased by 28.3% compared to 2021. Foreign markets were responsible for 2.3 million overnight stays, 57.1% more than in the last month of 2021. Compared to December 2019, there were increases of 11.4% in overnight stays for residents and 2.1% for non-residents.
Source: Observadora
