Portuguese average Christmas present spend €29

The Portuguese spent an average of €29 per present over the Christmas period — up €7 on 2017.

They offered an average of seven presents per consumer according to a survey carried out by the credit company Cetelem.

Last year, the average Portuguese offered six presents with an average spend of €22 per present.

According to the survey, 89% of those polled would spend Christmas as home with family with65% in their own home and 32% in the homes of other family members. Some 9% intended to spend the Christmas period away from home in a holiday destination either in Portugal or overseas while 6% intended to spend the festive season abroad.

Among those who planned to holiday during the Christmas period, only 16% planned to go abroad with the vast majority (84%) opted to stay in Portugal with the preferred destination in the north of Portugal. (37%) followed by the Algarve and the south of Portugal (30%).

However, according to a study by IPDT and Soltópico the Portuguese are generally travelling less over the Christmas and New Year period than in 2017.

And they will be taking less overseas holidays in 2019 as whole. The report, based on 408 questionnaires revealed that the Portuguese intend to tighten their belts over personal spending with the vast majority staying in Portugal (74%) over the New Year period.

“The results represent a slight increase of 1.3 percentage points on the number of Portuguese who intended to holiday overseas in 2018 compared to 2017” states tourism consultancy IPDT.