In 2021, Portugal received less than half of the tourists from the last year before the pandemic
The Instituto de Turismo Nacional202021, transition year between the complete transition of the sector in 2020 to the rapid recovery of 2020, the year that is being triggered by a chaotic summer in millions of tourists scheduled for 2020, quickly, for the rest of the sector of 20 marked in Europe. of the airport with airports and train stations flooded with passengers and unable to transport passengers.
Last year, it still had a long confinement in the first quarter, and which only recorded the containment of the covid-19 pandemic. non-resident tourists arriving in Portugal face 2020.
Compared to 2019, the last year without the effect of the pandemic, the drop was 61%. 9.6 million resident tourists visited the country in 2021.
Most of the tourists who visited us were from Spain, with a share of 30.2%. The interest of the citizens of the neighboring country in visiting Portugal has increased markedly compared to 2020, growing 57.3% last year from 1.8 million to 2.9 million visitors. The French followed (1.5 million, an increase of 46.2%, a share of 16.1%) and the British (one million, an increase of 24%, a share of 10.6%).
Last year, there were 16 million guests, an increase of 36.9% compared to 2020, and 42.6 million overnight stays, growing 40.7% compared to the same year. They also fell short of the 2019 records: 45.8% lower in the number of guests and 45.2% less in the number of overnight stays.
With the lifting of most cross-border barriers in the main outbound markets due to the pandemic, a faster recovery of overnight stays from external markets, growing by 50.1% compared to 2020, amounting to 20.1 million overnight stays, or 47, 2 % of the total.
The average expenditure per tourist was 196.6 euros, growing by 11.6% compared to 2020 and only 0.3% lower than in 2019.
The Portuguese also return to tourism
More than half of overnight stays – 22.5 million, or 52.8% of the total – were provided by the internal market, that is, by residents in Portugal, a quota that increased by 33.2% in 2021.
According to INE, tourist trips by residents in Portugal grew by 21.6% and totaled 17.5 million trips. The number of trips within the national territory grew by 20.2%, increasing at a slower pace than trips abroad, whose number rose by 48.8%. Compared to 2019, they were 22.7% and 67.4%, respectively, below the pre-pandemic record.
The Portuguese, on vacation in Portugal, spent 11.8 euros more than in 2020 per tourist (and 35.2 euros more than in 2019), an average of 170.1 euros.
For abroad, the Portuguese are opening their purse strings more, spending more than 91.9 euros, on average, per tourist, compared to 2020, raising the average spending to 628.7 euros. Compared to 2019, the difference in average spending was 2 euros more.