Tourists from the UK made approximately 700,000 overnight stays in the Algarve during October 2019, an increase of 4 percent compared to the same month in 2018.
During 2019 UK tourists made a total of 5.6 million overnight stays during 2019, 2.3 percent more than in the same period in 2018, reaffirming the region as the main holiday destination for tourists to Portugal.
“It is the result of the strengthening of air links and the promotion of the Algarve, both by Turismo do Algarve and by hotels and various tourism agents in the region” said the president of the Turismo do Algarve (the body that promotes the region abroad), João Fernandes, to Lusa.
The RTA president’s optimism extends into the future as he considers that the British elections will have removed British doubts about the conditions under which they would make a trip to Portugal, making the country “more competitive”.
The existing unilateral contingency plan, which exempts British visitors from visas gives guarantees and “peace of mind” for those travelling from the UK.
The increase in French tourists (+2.2 percent) revealed a phenomenon that “began with the use of the status of non-habitual resident” and that today generates demand for relatives and friends, the same is true for Italian tourists who, according to INE, grew 28.3 percent in overnight stays.
The president of Turismo do Algarve welcomes the significant growth of emerging markets such as Brazil (+29.9 percent), the United States (+15.4 percent) and Canada (+11.7 percent) – September figures -, which allow to “diversify” the demand markets and reduce the dependence on traditional markets, such as British, German, Dutch and Irish.
Overall revenues of the regional hotel industry continued to rise, rising to €96.6 million (+1.7 percent) in October and accumulating €1,168.3 million (+7 percent) in the first ten months of the year, a figure higher than that achieved in the full year 2018 (€1,136.6 million).
©The Portugal News
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