The Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA) have released the monthly provisional data compiled by its research office and highlighted that, with 43.7% of 2023, "the Algarve surpassed, in February, the values registered for the rate of occupancy per room since 2007".

This figure represents an increase of 5.4 percentage points compared to February 2019, a year in which tourist activity broke records in the region and had not yet been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, quantified AHETA in a statement.

The occupancy rate per quarter of February in hotels and tourist developments in the Algarve was also "2.1 percentage points above that seen in February 2020, the last month before the start of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic" which would affect tourist activity in the following two years.

"Compared to the same month of 2020, the year in which Carnival was on the 25th, the markets that most contributed to the rise were the national one, with more 1.4 percentage points, the Dutch and the British, both with more 0, 9 percentage points, and the North American, with another 0.5 percentage points", specified the Algarve business association, based in Albufeira.

The same source also pointed out that, compared to the same period in 2020, Praia da Rocha, in Portimão, was the area of the region that most contributed to the biggest year-on-year increase in February of the last 16 years, registering an increase of 16.5 percentage points.

Praia da Rocha was followed by the geographic areas of Monte Gordo/Vila Real de Santo António and Tavira, which also grew by 11.1 and 7.2 percentage points, respectively, said AHETA.