Portugal registered 4.3 million overnight stays in February, but with Madeira falling

PT Tourism

Portugal registered 1.8 million guests and 4.3 million overnight stays in February this year, registering year-on-year growth of 7% and 6.4%, respectively, according to an estimate released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Overnight stays in the tourism sector are therefore growing again, after a slight drop recorded in January, something that has not happened since the second quarter of 2021.

Supporting the recovery recorded in February was the growth of overnight stays from non-residents, which rose 8.1% compared to the same month of 2024, contradicting the slowdown trend of the last three months and totaling 2.9 million. Already the Resident overnight stays grew 3.1% in the same period, to 1.4 millionreported ECO.

Among the ten main issuing markets, the UK was the main one with 17%, with a growth of 9.4%, followed by Germany which registered 11.4% of occupancy, which grew by 8.5%. However, France, the fourth largest, recorded a decrease of 13.3%.

All regions recorded an increase in overnight stays, with the greatest expression in Greater Lisbon with 29%, the Algarve with 19.1% and the North reaching 17.6%. The West and Tagus Valley grew 17.2% and the Azores 14.0%, also the Setúbal Peninsula with a good result, rising 9.1%. Although with a lower number of tourists, the Alentejo and Centro regions also registered an increase of 1.5% in Alentejo and 1.7% in the Center. The surprise comes with the 9.8% drop in Madeira.