At a presentation at the Lisbon Tourism Fair (BTL), Cristina Siza Vieira of the AHP recalled that the group follows the practice of making a forecast at the beginning of each year, then reviews that in the middle of the year, and finally conducts an end-of-year tally. "This is all AHP, prediction and counting," he stressed.

In 2018, "of the initial forecast of 61 new hotels only 26 opened, that is, 42% of those predicted,” she said. “In the city of Lisbon, 25 … were announced and 10 opened."

This is, she said, due to "many factors" that include "delays in licensing, delays in construction work, changes in investment options, human resources difficulty in hiring and forming teams.”

Siza Vieira noted that this “mortality rate” is not, however, "so high" in projects that involve refurbishing and reopening hotels, where the rate of completion is 78%.

"Here, in fact, 78% of the predicted, for natural reasons, were achieved. It is easier to predict this [remodeling and reopenings] than to make a root investment, "he said, asking" attention to what is being announced and what is actually coming to fruition. "

In presenting the outlook for 2019 in December 2018, the AHP executive director had already stressed that the expression 'pipeline' should be adopted in releasing projections for hotel openings.

The BTL began on Wednesday, for tourism sector professionals only; it opens to the general public on Friday afternoon, running until Sunday at Lisbon’s FIL trade fairgrounds. In all, some 70,000 visitors are expected, according to organisers.