According to the data provided by the National Statistics Institute, the first half of this year was somewhat unsuccessful for hotels in Portugal. The country’s tourism sector still suffers from recession and, as a consequence, a drop in spending. Revenues of Portugal hoteliers fell down by 3%. This is mostly the result of smaller spending of in-country tourists. Even international tourists, who stayed longer than usual during the abovementioned period, couldn’t save the situation.
The share of tourism in the economy of Portugal is approximately 10%. Currently the country suffers from the largest recession since 1970s and has to cope with a huge debt of 78 billion euros. This is the main reason why local tourists cut their spending.
The total revenues of hotels in Portugal estimated 770 million euros ($948.18 million) during first six months of 2012. Therefore, hotel revenues fell down by 3 per cent. The hotels of the country were visited by 2% less Portuguese customers. The total number of visitors reached 6 million. The drop in the number of nights spent in hotels is even more significant – 10 per cent. However, this drop was partially compensated by the 10% growth of the number of nights spent by foreign visitors. The average length of stay in Portugal accommodations has remained unchanged – three nights.
Almost 70% of the total hotel nights in January-June 2012 were spent by foreign guests. The source markets of foreign tourists have somewhat changes. For instance, there is a growth of 21% in the number of Brazilian tourists who visited Portugal in the first half of this year.