More than 150 thousand people are expected this Holy Week in Braga. Currently, the city’s hotels are 90% occupied, according to data from the Braga Business Association.
Rui Marques, general director of the Braga Business Association, estimates that the number of visitors could reach 200 thousand if weather conditions allow. “We had an expectation, but this is always difficult to predict because we don’t have much information capable of identifying in desirable detail the number of people coming to Braga during this period of major events such as Holy Week. In any case, from our experience, we believe that on the high days of Holy Week, that is, on the days of the processions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, around 150,000 to 200,000 more people could come to the city, which is a remarkable value”, said Rui Marques.
The general director of the Braga Business Association said that the hotel occupancy rate was, at the end of last week, between 90% and 95%. “The rate was already very close to the limit. We’ll see whether or not there may be cancellations depending on the weather in the coming days. Much of the motivation for people who come to Braga, in fact, is to watch the processions and, with a very high forecast of rain, naturally people know that the processions may not go ahead and end up eventually cancelling. But now only as the event unfolds will we understand whether there is this phenomenon of cancellations or not,” he added.
In 2023, the economic impact of Holy Week in Braga amounted to 13.2 million euros.
