Tourists spend €7Bn in first half of 2018
Revenues from tourism in Portugal hit €7Bn in the first half of 2018, an increase of 14% on the same period in 2017.
The results reflect higher prices charged for hotel rooms and tourism organisations given the fact that tourist numbers are down compared to last year.
According to data published by the Bank of Portugal, tourists spent €6.9Bn between January and June, +13.88% than the first half of 2017.
May was the best month of this period, with a total of €1.5Bn in tourism receipts. In June, receipts fell slightly to €1.43Bn.
These figures show that during the first half of 2018 tourists spent an average of slightly more than 38 million per day while the Portuguese spent a total of €2.26Bn overseas, an increase of 7.44% on the first half of the year in 2017.
These figures are despite the fact that growth in the number of visitors and hotel room bookings has fallen. Revenues show that tourists are spending more.
In the first half of this year Portuguese hotel establishments welcomed 9.6 million guests, a like-for-like increase of 2.6% which translates into 25.3 million bookings, an increase of just 0.5% in relation to the first six months of last year.
This means that tour operators are not only earning more, but are earning more in low-season months.
In the first half, March and May were the months that recorded the greatest turnover in revenues, in both cases around 20%.
The Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho says, “These numbers show that tourism has continued to grow throughout the year, and particularly that we are succeeding in growing at a far superior rate in terms of revenues, which means we are growing in value and succeeding in attracting tourists that are spending more.”