Number of Guests and Overnight Stays Fall Sharply in January

3 March 2021 – Ana Custódio

According to data released by Portugal’s statistical agency, the tourist accommodation sector reported 308,400 guests who spent a total of 709,900 overnight stays in January.

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), the drops reached 78.3% and 78.2%, respectively, compared to falls of 71.2% and 72.6% in December. The agency added that overnight stays by residents fell by 60.3% (-54.2% in December), while those by non-residents dropped 87% (-83.2% in the previous month).

In this first month of the year, hotels, which account for 71.1% of the total, suffered the most significant drop in overnight stays, down by 81.4%, with local accommodation establishments (25.1% of the total) falling 63.4% and tourism in rural areas and housing (3.8% share) down 54.2%. INE’s analysis also shows that 54% of tourist accommodation establishments were closed or hosted no overnight stays in the month (vs 52.3% in December).

The domestic market (60.1%) tallied 427,000 overnight stays, a decrease of 60.3% (-54.2% in December). Overnight stays from external markets fell by 87% (-83.2% in the previous month) to reach 282,900. The National Institute of Statistics also revealed all of the seventeen primary source markets saw further significant declines in January, having accounted for 84.1% of the nights spent by non-residents in tourist accommodation establishments this month. The greatest reductions came from the Chinese (-98.1%), Danish (-95.2%), Russian (-94.8%), Canadian (-94.3%) and the USA (-94.2%) markets.

All regions showed a decrease in the number of nights spent by residents and non-residents in January.  The smallest drops in overnight stays for residents were recorded in Alentejo (-54.9%) and Madeira (-56.1%). For non-residents, the smallest decline came in the Alentejo (-68.9%), while every other region posted drops of over 80%.

Every region posted total declines in excess of 50%. The least affected regions were the Alentejo (-59.3%), followed by the Centre (-69.3%). The hardest-hit areas were Lisbon (-81.9%), Madeira (-81.2%) and the Algarve (-80.6%).

Translation: Richard Turner