The Algarve again had fewer tourists in July than in the same month of the previous year. Even so – as has been, moreover, the trend since the beginning of the year – the income of hotel units in the region has risen and more Portuguese are choosing the Algarve to spend their holidays.
Monthly data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on tourist activity were released yesterday, Monday. In them, the decreases of 2,8% and 3,2%, respectively, in the number of guests and in the number of overnight stays, stand out.
A drag this indicator downwards is the decrease in the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists, which it has been happening «since February», as the Hotel Association of Portugal pointed out yesterday.
And the decrease in the number of overnight stays is only not more accentuated due to the growth in the demand of national tourists. «Compared to the previous year, in July the overnight stays of Portuguese tourists in the destination grew by 5,9%, a performance highlighted by INE. If we add the results of the first seven months of the year, overnight stays from residents have already registered an accumulated increase of 6,6% (+135 thousand overnight stays)», highlighted the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA).
«The domestic market has, therefore, a year of growth in the largest Portuguese tourist destination, as opposed to overnight stays by non-residents, which decreased by 6,5% in July and 4,5% since the beginning of the year (-386 thousand overnight stays) , following the trend indicated by the INE for the country», added the same entity.
In the view of RTA, «the most positive indicator for the region», among those released by INE, is the year-on-year growth of income in hotel establishments, both total and accommodation, in the Algarve. In the first case, income reached 186,7 million euros, 3,2% more than in the same month of the previous year. Income from accommodation stood at 144,4 million euros, an increase of 1,9%.
Since the beginning of the year, «the Algarve has accumulated total income of around 569 million euros (+4,6%), more than 10,4 million overnight stays (-2,3%) and close to 2,4 million guests (-0,3%)'.
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