After seven years of growth in tourist arrivals which has benefited its economy, Portugal saw the number of foreign visitors fall 2% in August, which is traditionally the strongest month for travel.
The National Statistics Institute (INE), which monitors hotel stays, said that between January and August that number edged up 0.5% to 8.6 million in a sharp slowdown from a near 12% jump in the same period a year ago.
A record 12.7 million tourists visited Portugal during all of last year. The drop in August alone, from the same month a year ago, followed a near 3% fall in July. Hotel revenues, including from domestic tourism, still rose over 7% in January-August to nearly 2.5 billion euros (about R41 billion), INE said. During all of last year hotel revenues rose 17%. The average hotel stay fell almost 2% to 2.8 nights.
Travellers from all main European markets stayed fewer nights in Portuguese hotels, with Britain leading the trend, but a higher number of tourists from Brazil and North America spent more time in Portugal. Tourism and all travel-related revenues account for over 10% of Portugal’s gross domestic product.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
