Portugal‘s tourist accommodation sector saw a decline in April 2024, with 2.6 million guests and 6.5 million overnight stays recorded, marking decreases of 3.7% and 4.3%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, new data from Statistics Portugal has found.
This contrasts with March 2024, a month that experienced substantial growth, year-on-year, recording increases of 12.3% in guests and 12.8% in overnight stays.
This was influenced by the effect of the Easter holiday period, Statistics Portugal said. Last year, Easter was entirely in April, whereas this year it was spread across both March and April, impacting tourism patterns and contributing to the observed variations in guest numbers and overnight stays.
Despite the overall decline, overnight stays by residents grew significantly, increasing by 12.5% to reach 1.8 million. Non-resident overnight stays showed a modest rise of 0.8%, totalling 4.8 million.
British tourists
The British market was the largest external contributor, with an 18.2% share, although it saw a slight decrease of 0.2%. The German market followed with an 11.7% share, experiencing a growth of 2.0%. Elsewhere, the Spanish market, which accounted for 6.9% of the share, saw a significant drop of 42.5%.
There was considerable regional variation in the evolution of overnight stays. Região Autónoma (RA) dos Açores recorded the most substantial increase, growing by 7.5%, while Madeira showed a modest increase of 0.8%.
Oeste e Vale do Tejo and Grande Lisboa experienced slight rises of 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively. However, other regions faced declines, with Alentejo and Algarve experiencing the most significant decreases. of 11.3% and 9.9%, respectively.
Occupancy rates in tourist accommodation establishments also declined in April 2024.
Net bed occupancy fell to 47.3%, a decrease of 3.6 percentage points, while room occupancy dropped to 57.5%, down by 2.7 percentage points.
