The overnight stays of Portuguese tourists in hotels in the Algarve grew 11,2% in May this year, compared to the same month in 2017, revealed the National Statistics Institute (INE). This growth helped keep the total number of overnight stays in relation to 2017, which leads the Algarve Tourism Region to consider that residents «continue to be the engine of regional tourism activity in 2018».
The significant increase in the already representative national market, as well as in the German market, among others, made it possible to offset the 1,6% decrease in overnight stays from non-residents, in general - much at the expense of a strong decrease in the British and Dutch.
Thus, it was possible to reach the figure of 1,8 million overnight stays, "a result similar to that of 2017" (there was a very slight decrease of 1%). «In this indicator, about nine out of ten overnight stays were made by foreigners, with emphasis on the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland. The increase in overnight stays from Portuguese (+11,2%), German (+4,2%), Irish (+9,9%) and French (+24,1%) offset the monthly drop registered in overnight stays for British tourists (-11,2%) and Dutch (-12,1%)», revealed the RTA.
INE data also reveal that in May there were even more tourists staying in Algarve hotels, although this was not reflected in the number of overnight stays. In all, 444 thousand people stayed in hotels in the Algarve, a year-on-year growth of 4,3%.
Also on the rise are income from hotel units, which grew by 7,1% overall, «reaching 94,6 million euros».
Between January and May, hotels in the Algarve hosted 1,3 million guests, who were responsible for 5,6 overnight stays, having accumulated income in excess of 250 million euros.
«In the first five months of the year, the Airport of Faro handled 2,6 million passengers (-0,8%) and the associated courses of Algarve Golf recorded 618 rounds of golf (-0,9%)”, concluded the RTA.
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