2024 record year for tourism in Portugal

 In Hotel, News, Tourism

Last year looks set to break all records for the number of tourists holidaying in Portugal according to the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

The news agency Lusa reports that in 2024 hotels and tourist accommodation checked in a dizzying 31.6 million guests (that’s three times the population of Portugal!) and posted 80.3 million overnight stay – a new record.

The annual like-for-like increase in tourist numbers stood at 5.2% while hotel stays were up 4%.

In December, 2024, the sector’s tourist accommodation posted 1.9 million guests and 4.2 million overnight stays which meant a 3.6% increase of people and an over 2.9% increase in overnight stays at hotels in Portugal.

The national occupation rate stood at 32.2% and 39.2% for net occupation/per bed and occupation/room rates respectively.

According to a back-of-the-envelop estimate by the INE, bookings from overseas dominated, representing 70.3% of the total for 2024 from a total of 56.4 million.

The UK was the main origin of tourists in 2024, responsible for almost two out of every 10 (18.1%) overnight stays from non-residents (+2.7%), followed by the German market (11.3%), Spanish (9.7%), US (9.2%), and French (8%).

The biggest gains in overseas tourist numbers were those from Canada (+17.1% and the US (+12.1%)

Until November, overnight stays grew by 4.1%, with residents registering the most significant increase (22.2%) in the penultimate month of the year, corresponding to 1.7 million people. However, at the end of the year, the trend reversed and foreign visitors ended up dictating the evolution of the market.

“In foreign markets, the British remained the main source market (share of 13.7%), having registered a slight decrease (0.2%), followed by Spain (13.2% share), which decreased by 10%. Among the 10 main source markets in December, the Polish market once again stood out for the largest increase (13.9%)”, reads the INE report for December.