Tourist accommodation grows 12.2% in guests and 12.8% in overnight stays in March

The tourist accommodation sector registered 2.3 million guests and 5.7 million overnight stays in March, a year-on-year increase of 12.2% and 12.8%, respectively, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced today.

In February, the tourist accommodation sector, which includes hotels, apartment hotels, tourist apartments, tourist villages, inns and farms in Madeira and local accommodation with 10 or more beds, had registered an increase in guests and overnight stays of 7.1% and 6.4%, in the same order, according to INE, remembering that the acceleration in March is due to the Easter boost.

Overnight stays from residents, in turn, grew 10.3% in March this year, corresponding to 1.6 million, while those from non-residents increased 13.8%, totaling 4.1 million, he adds.

As for foreign markets, the UK was the main issuing market in March with a growth of 9.3%, having a global weight of 16.4%.

Germany, which represented 13.7% of all issuing markets, grew 12.1%, followed by Spain with 11.5% of the total, but which recorded the highest growth among the main markets this month ( +47.5%).

All regions recorded an increase in overnight stays, with the greatest expression in the West and Vale do Tejo (+29.4%), Center (+23.1%) and Alentejo (+21.0%).

The most modest growth occurred in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (+4.1%) and Greater Lisbon (+8.9%).

In March, occupancy in tourist accommodation establishments in the country grew by 42.2% and 51.7%, in net rates of bed occupancy and room occupancy, respectively (+2.9 percentage points and +1.5 percentage points), in the same order.

INE also states that in the first three months of this year, overnight stays grew by 7.1% year-on-year, rising by 3.9% for residents and increasing by 8.7% among non-residents.

These results were influenced by the mobile structure of the calendar, that is, by the effect of the holiday period associated with Easter, which this year was spread between March and April, while in the previous year it was concentrated only in April, warns INE.