Overnight hotel stays hit new record in August

Holidaymakers from the United States and Canada helped hotels in Portugal set a new record for overnight stays in August.

Portugal’s tourist accommodation sector saw 3.8 million guests and 10.5 million overnight stays in August, hitting a new record, corresponding to growth of 5.9% and 3.9% respectively, representing a growth of +1.7% and +2.6% on July.

“After having registered a decrease in July, overnight stays of residents increased by 4.6%, a growth higher than that recorded by non-residents ( 3.4%), which slowed down for the first consecutive month. Overnight stays of residents totalled 3.6 million and those of non-residents totalled 6.9 million,” according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In foreign markets, the British remained the main tourist issuing market (17.1% share), growing 1.3% in August, followed by Spain (16.3% share), which grew 4.6%. Despite a decrease of 2.9% in August, the French market rounded off the top 3 with a share of 11.3%.

In the group of the top ten issuing markets in August, the fastest growing were the Canadian ( 11.2%) and the North American ( 8.4%). On the other hand, the Brazilian and Italian markets recorded the largest decreases among the top ten issuing markets, with a drop of 5.9% (0.8%), respectively.

In the eighth month of the year, all regions registered growth in overnight stays, with the exception of the Autonomous Region of Madeira ( 0.3%). The highest growth occurred in the Setúbal Peninsula ( 8.1%) and in the Autonomous Region of the Azores ( 7.5%), being more modest in the Algarve ( 1.1%) and in the West and Tagus Valley ( 1.6%).