Tourism: 2021 closed with 16 million guests and €2.3Bn in revenues

 In News, Tourism, Travel

Portugal’s tourism sector closed 2021 with 16 million hotel and accommodation bookings from tourists who brought in €2.3Bn in revenues in 2021, but was it still below 2019 levels.
The country’s hotels and guest houses enjoyed an increase of 21% on 2020 when the pandemic arrived and all but shut down the economy.

According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), despite this increase, numbers are still below 2019 levels which was a record year with 27 million tourists. In terms of revenues, the sector brought in €2.3Bn, up 61% on 2020.
“2021 was still affected by the constraints and restrictions from the pandemic, particularly the lockdown in the first half of the year, with negative effects on the tourism sector which despite growing in comparison to 2020, a year which suffered a contraction without precedent, was still far form the numbers seen in 2019”, states the INE.
Of the 16 million estimated guests in 2021, 9.6 million were international tourists. This number represents an increase of 48.4% on 2020, but 39% down on 2019 (24.6 million overseas visitors).
The United Kingdom is still Portugal’s biggest market (16.2%, having grown 46%, followed by the Spanish (14.6%), and German (12.5%).