Resident Overnight Stays Rose in 1Q21, but Far from Level in 2019

The tourist accommodation sector hosted 1.4 million guests for a total of 3.4 million overnight stays in June 2021. Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE) presented the figures today.

The tally compares very favourably with the 476,700 guests and one million overnight stays seen in June 2020 during the depths of the pandemic. The numbers, however, were far below those of the same month in 2019, which saw drops of 50.1% and 52.6% in the number of guests and overnight stays, respectively.

Compared to June 2019, there were decreases of 7.6% in overnight stays by residents and 72.0% in overnight stays by non-residents. There was a 21.3% decrease in total overnight stays in the first half of the year, resulting from variations of +23.7% in residents and -50.8% in non-residents.  The analysis compares with the same period of 2019, in which overnight stays fell by 73.4% (-42.3% for residents and -85.9% for non-residents). In June, 25.3% of tourist accommodation establishments were closed or failed to receive any visitors (37.2% in May).

The figures for guests and overnight stays maintained their upward trend, though still fared poorly compared to the same period in 2019. The tourist accommodation sector reported 1.4 million guests and 3.4 million overnight stays in June this year, up 186.9% and 230.1%, respectively (+674.2% and +681.2% in May, in the same order).  According to INE, overnight stays in hotels (80.1% of the total) increased by 261.5% (-54.0% compared to June 2019). Overnight stays in local accommodations (14.1% of the total) grew by 183.4% (-53.9% compared to the same month of 2019), and those in rural and residential tourism (5.9%) increased by 84.4% (-6.6% compared to June 2019).

A 21.3% decrease in total overnight stays in the first half of the year resulted from variations of +23.7% for residents and -50.8% for non-residents. Compared to the same period in 2019, overnight stays declined by 73.4% (-42.3% for residents and -85.9% for non-residents). Between January and June 2021, resident overnight stays represented 62.3% of the total, a share that contrasts with that seen in 2020 (39.7% of the total) and 2019 (28.7% of the total).

Polish, Swiss and Belgian markets reported growth during the first half of year. Portugal’s seventeen main source markets recorded increases in June, representing 88.3% of overnight stays by non-residents in tourist accommodation establishments this month. In June, the British market accounted for 22.8% of total nights spent by non-residents, followed by the Spanish (14.3%), German (11.3%) and French (10.6%) markets. In the first half of the year, there were increases in the Polish (+29.0%), Swiss (+11.9%) and Belgian (+3.3%) markets, while the other main markets saw declines.

INE also highlighted that resident overnight stays increased in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Alentejo, Autonomous Region of the Azores and the Algarve. The Algarve concentrated 34.1% of overnights in June, followed by the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (16.8%), the North (15.8%) and the Centre (12.6%). In the first half of the year, the number of nights spent increased in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (+28.2%) and in Alentejo (+15.4%), while they fell in every other region. In the first six months of the year, the number of overnight stays by residents increased in every region, particularly in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (+99.8%), the Autonomous Region of the Azores (+66.3%) and the Algarve (+52.6%).