After the “Mais Habitação” program, there’s been a lot of talk about the importance of tourist accommodation for the national economy, not only because of the owners, but also because of the number of jobs that ALs generate, directly or indirectly. In order to prove everything we’ve speculated about, ALEP (Tourist Accommodation Association in Portugal) has commissioned a study to Nova SBE, which concludes that tourist accommodation has been an important part of the national economy.
In this study, conceiving the end of Tourist Accommodation, they’ve verified that, in order to accommodate every tourist who sleeps in AL units, 1.030 new hotels would have to be built all over the country. In Lisbon, they would need 211 hotels, in Porto 168, and in the Algarve region 169. This study indicates that it would be necessary to increase the traditional hotel offer by over 50%, in order to host every tourist who visits the country and chooses to stay in an AL.
The study, titled “Evaluation of the Impact of Tourist Accommodation in Portugal”, was made by the economists Pedro Brinca, João Bernardo Duarte and João Pedro Ferreira. With these numbers, the study says that “it’s not possible to sustain tourism’s contribution for the Portuguese economy without AL”, even if there’s an “increase in the hotel occupancy rates, or the construction of new hotels”. Even if the occupancy rate rose to “never before seen numbers”, it would “always be limited to less than 15 million overnight stays”, below the 38 million overnight stays registered between 2019 and 2022.
Besides, considering the importance of Tourist Accommodation for Portugal, this activity represents more than half of the family income for 39% of owners. In the final presentation of this study’s results, the economist and investigator of Nova School of Business & Economics, Pedro Brinca, has highlighted that 46% of tourist accommodations in Portugal generate at least 20 thousand euros a year for their owners. At the same time, this profit represents “more than 60% of the family income” for 39% of the participants, based on 1.820 answers from owners and managers.
Reinforcing even more the importance of Tourist Accommodation, based on data from 2019, the study estimates that the sector is responsible for 306.096 direct and indirect jobs (which represent 6,18% of the national total). This means that, for each existing tourist accommodation, almost four news jobs are created. Regarding the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the contribution of the spendings of tourists who stayed in ALs in 2019 was of 9,9 million euros in total (4,64% of the national GDP).
The study concludes that tourist accommodation “is a reality all over the national territory” as well, with Lisbon and Porto making up for “only” 26% (17% and 9%, respectively).
Source: Dinheiro Vivo and Sapo.pt
Translated by Joana Teixeira
