Portugal: US Market Will Dominate Over Easter
As reported by the Portugal News, the President of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA), Hélder Martins, noted that in addition to the US, the Easter season “benefits a lot from the Spanish market”.
Yet, he claims, the United Kingdom market continues to remain dominant in Portugal’s southernmost region, the Algarve, along with the French and Burch markets, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.
Commenting on the high number of arrivals expected to be registered this Easter, Martins pointed out that even during the low season, tourists from North America have arrived in the Algarve despite there being no direct flights.
The same noted that it is very important that this market – the US market – is consolidated in order to grow further.
“It’s not a market that comes and goes the next day. It is evident that for this market to consolidate, and it is an extremely important market, it is necessary to have flights and there are no flights, for the time being”, Martins also added.
Whereas the President of Turismo do Algarve, João Fernandes has emphasised that this year Easter reservations present a more stable component in terms of the percentage of pre-paid reservations.
Fernandes revealed that around 30 per cent of bookings for the Algarve are paid in advance, and said that there is also a greater balance between bookings made directly by the tourist and bookings through intermediaries.
Portugal is one of the countries that continue to remain a popular travel destination all year round. Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) show that Portugal welcomed a total of 183,215 tourists from the US in July 2022, surpassing June’s figures.
Such data revealed that during June 2022, 181,869 Americans visited Portugal, a figure that was considered the most significant increase since 2013. However, the number of visitors reached in July shows that there was another record.
Commenting on these data, the General Secretary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal (AmCham Portugal), Graça Didier said that up until a few years ago, American tourists did not visit Portugal much, but now, according to him, this has changed and the country is on the map of American travellers.
Over the past year, there was also an increase in guests and overnight stays in Portugal by over 80 per cent. At the same time, the number of American tourists increased by more than 300 per cent per year.
In the same period, of all Portugal’s foreign markets, North America grew the most. In 2022 there were 327.4 per cent more American tourists in Portugal compared to 2021 and +26.9 per cent compared to 2019.
