One perhaps surprising finding is that almost half of all visitors to Porto and the northern region were travelling alone.
The ‘Profile of Tourists to Porto and Northern Portugal’ study was carried out between October 2015 and March 2016 – the International Air Travel Association (IATA) winter season – by the Institute for Tourism Planning and Development (IPDT) in partnership with the Northern Tourism Board and Porto Airport.
It found that during the afore-mentioned six months, tourists to the north stayed an average of six nights and spent around €745.
Just over a third of the visitors stayed in hotels, and the study further showed that the number of tourists to northern Portugal during the past IATA winter season was up on figures from the year before, having grown by 29 percent.
The research revealed “that the number of people visiting this destination solo is growing”, with 45 percent of respondents having said that they were travelling alone, something the head of the IPDT describes as “a very interesting market.”
“It is important that we get to know the profile well of this kind of tourist, to explore opportunities associated to this segment”, IPDT president António Jorge Costa reflected in comments to Lusa News Agency.
According to the conclusions reached via the study, the respondents who said they had already previously visited Porto and the north tended to return to the region two or three times a year, namely those who visit family, friends or are on business.
And the vast majority of those who participated in the survey, 83 percent, said “they hadn’t thought about choosing a different destination” for holidays, while the remaining 17 percent listed Lisbon, the Algarve and Spain as their main alternatives.
Ryanair and national airline TAP were the most-used airlines in travelling to the region, accounting for 36 percent and 25 percent of passengers respectively.
Most people said they made the trip to visit family or friends (39.2 percent), for leisure or a holiday (33.5 percent) or for professional reasons or business (24.7 percent).
Most visitors were within the 19 to 50 age-group, male and married; 62 percent said they were employed while 50 percent of respondents earned between €1,000 and €3,000.
The main source markets of foreign tourists to the north last winter were France, Spain and Switzerland.
While in the region most tourists wanted to sample the local gastronomy (66 percent), go shopping (49 percent), visit monuments (37 percent), enjoy the landscape (36 percent) or take car trips (28 percent).
On a scale of one to seven, the average satisfaction rate of visitors’ stays in the north was 6.2 .