We have long seen that with the pandemic, the Portuguese have begun to discover even more of Portugal on their vacations. And, in fact, this trend has never been clearer and we can see that this year the Portuguese have chosen Portugal to enjoy the Summer – mainly in the Algarve and in the northern region of the country.
According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), in August 2021, of the 2.5 million guests who passed through tourist accommodation units, 1.5 million lived in Portugal and accounted for 4.2 million overnight stays – the highest figure, at least, since 2013.
If before the pandemic, going abroad was the preferred option, today that reality has changed. Enjoying the country without much bureaucracy, without restrictions, and with a quick vaccination process, were key reasons to keep the Portuguese here. At LovelyStay alone, for example, we received 458 reservations from Portuguese people in August, which represented 18% of the month’s occupancy, corresponding to a total of 2478 reservations.
In this text we talked a little bit about the Portuguese desire to travel domestically. See the link!
“Portugal is a country for all tastes with beautiful beaches, mountains, rivers, villages, and towns. The various regions enchant with their diversity, even if we are a small country. It is very important for tourism to understand that the Portuguese continue to choose Portugal to enjoy their vacations. And we hope it stays that way!”, celebrated Miguel Marinho Soares, Head of Business Development at LovelyStay.
According to a piece in Diário de Notícias, if we look by regions, we can see that the Algarve had 1.7 million overnight stays by residents in August 2021, which represents the best month in terms of Portuguese people staying overnight in tourist accommodation establishments since at least 2013, the year from which INE data is available. The North had more than 641,000 overnight stays by residents, the best August since 2013 as well
Also according to INE data, Spaniards have occupied an important slice of the tourism market this year. In numbers, until August, more than 587 thousand guests residing in Spain passed through the accommodation units, having achieved 1.4 million overnight stays and surpassing, for logical reasons of restrictions, the English, who have always elected Portugal as the favorite country for summer vacations.
Translated by Miguel Marinho Soares
