Seven years after a very strong growth in tourist arrivals, which has really indeed benefitted the economy of Portugal, has finally seen the fall in the number of foreign visitors.
The fall was almost 2 percent, in the month of August, which is mostly the strongest month for visitors, as shown by the official data. It has been shown by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which helps in monitoring stays in hotels, reported that between two months, i.e. January and August, the number had increased 0.5 percent.
This lead to the total number of 8.6 million, which is a decline of 12 percent compared to the same period an year ago. It was a record of 12.7 million tourists that visited Portugal throughout the whole of 2017.
The drop in percentage not only in August but the trend started in July. July saw a fall of 3 percent. Still, it should be noted that, even though there was a sharp decline in the number of tourists, the hotel revenues, which includes domestic tourism also, continued to rose over 7percent during January to August.
The total value was $2.9 billion, as said by the INE. During the whole of last year, the percent of hotel stay rose to 17 percent. It was also reported that the average stay in the hotel also fell 2 percent to 2.8 nights. It was seen that travelers that came from all the main European markets, mainly stayed fewer nights in these hotels in Portugal.
It was Britain that led the trend, with the highest number of tourists from Noth America and Brazil, spending more time in Portugal. You can visit Portugal Guide if you need help with Portugal Tourism.
It should be noted that tourism and everything other travel related revenues of Portugal account for almost 10 percent of Portugal’s Gross Domestic Product.
It is being forecasted that the amount is set to increase by 2.3 percent in 2018, which is a slowdown from the 2.7 percent of last year, i.e. 2017. 2017 saw the largest growth in tourism of Portugal, since the year 2000.
It should also be kept in mind that, Tourism is also a way to create employment in the country as well. It is indeed a big source of employment for Portugal. It is also a source of the way for export services of the country too.
This is one of the reasons why visitors are lured inside the sandy beaches of Portugal. Not only that, all the medieval castles, various golf courses, and not to mention the lowest costing winning and dining services, all over Western Europe.
You can go through the independent travel tips if you need help in your tourism journey. The tourism industry has been growing steadily since 2011. This can be seen by the increase in the number of new hotels and also thousands of refurbished apartments which are open for tourists across Portugal.
