Tourism in Portugal Shows Threefold Increase for January, Official Data Reveals

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), tourism accommodation reached a 183.7 per cent increase on year-on-year rates, while overnight stays spent in Portugal grew by 185.9 per cent during the same period, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.

Although the figure spiked compared to December rates when the number of guests increased by 148.9 per cent and overnights reached 169.7 per cent, the tourism levels are far below the January 2020 rates, when no restrictions such as travel bans weren’t imposed by governments – reaching about 39.9 per cent in guests and 38.8 per cent in overnight stays.

The first month of the year showed a productive domestic market as it contributed with 857,700 overnight stays, a 104.5 per cent increase from December, and the external markets totalled 1.1 million, about 308.7 per cent more than in the previous month.

>> Portugal: Current Travel Restrictions Explained

However, compared to January 2020, the figures dropped by 20.1 per cent in overnight stays and 47.9 per cent in international arrivals. All the main outbound markets recorded increases in January, accounting for 84.7 per cent of overnight stays from internationals in tourist accommodation establishments this month.

As per markets, Britons remained the largest market for tourism in Portugal for January 2022. They accounted for 14.6 per cent of total overnight stays from non-residents, followed by the German nationals with 13.4 per cent of all arrivals and Brazilians with 9.4 percentage points.

In addition, during January, 41 per cent of tourist accommodation establishments were closed or had no movement of guests due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 virus, compared to December when 37 per cent of establishments were available.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the increase in the travel demand in Portugal has created the need for more than 85,000 workers in the industry as the workload is larger than the current staff to handle them.

“Portugal’s economic recovery could be at risk if we do not have enough people to fill those jobs when tourists return,” the President of the WTTC, Julia Simpson, pointed out in this regard.

Lack of workers in the industry puts many businesses at difficulty, especially after the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has damaged all industries.