Inflation does not stop the demand for vacations and the rush to travel shoots 20% to a record

Lusanova’s operational director corroborates the argument and states that the thirst for travel is transversal across national and foreign territories. “Bookings for the Azores and Madeira have increased compared to 2023, as has the demand for long-distance destinations, such as India, Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Canada”, says the tour operator’s spokesperson.

Tiago Encarnação also explains that Lusanova brought forward the programming this year to “meet the demand felt at the beginning of 2024”.

“It is common for tour package prices to increase compared to the previous year, however, we noticed that this price increase does not seem to have affected demand and the choice of destinations on our offer. It had no impact on the demand for our destinations”, he points out.

And where are the Portuguese buying holidays? Disneyland Paris, Cape Verde, Morocco, Spanish islands, Tunisia, Crete, Senegal and São Tomé are some of the destinations with the greatest demand, already consolidated in recent years. In the long haul, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Brazil are preferred.

But apart from the offer of sun and beach, the results are also positive. Pinto Lopes Viagens, which organizes group, cultural and author trips, highlights “a higher than normal demand for themed trips”. Destinations in Europe and Asia assume favoritism and the top is occupied by Japan, India, Argentina and Chile, Peru and the United Arab Emirates, but there is a growing interest in “outside the box” destinations such as Iraq, North Korea, Antarctica, Alaska, Saudi Arabia, Angola and Zimbabwe.

“Despite the macroeconomic situation, the prospects are that the Portuguese will continue to travel. At least, when it comes to our typical client, we are convinced that they do not see the act of traveling as a cost, but rather as an investment”, says CEO, Rui Pinto Lopes.

The first quarter has not yet come to an end and, if the level of demand continues, agencies are optimistic about a new record year, says the president of APAVT. “There is still a lot of summer operations to be sold. It’s still too early to confirm [um novo recorde]but if we compare sales with the same period last year we are clearly growing and everything looks like this year will be better, however much it may surprise me”, concludes Pedro Costa Ferreira.

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