“The Tourism Indicator predicts that around 322.5 thousand overnight stays in all tourist accommodation establishments (hospitality, local accommodation and tourism in rural areas) will have been recorded in the month of April”, reads a SREA publication, published on its website.

According to the Regional Statistics Service, “the value of this estimate for overnight stays is 5.7 percent higher when compared to the provisional value for the same month (305 thousand)”.

The Tourism Indicator report also highlights the number of passengers disembarking at Azores airports in April, originating abroad and within the national territory (excluding islands in the archipelago).

According to data previously revealed by SREA, passengers from international flights (22,878) increased by 24.3 percent, while travellers from the continent and Madeira (89,857) increased by 4.1 percent.

The publication also highlights withdrawals and purchases from ATMs and automatic payment terminals (TPA) made by nationals (177,759 million euros) and foreigners (21,859 million euros) in the month of April, in the Azores.

Purchases made at TPA reached 153.7 million euros (9 percent more than in the same period last year), of which 133.9 million with national bank cards (8.1 percent more) and 19.9 million with international bank cards (plus 15.9 percent).

According to SREA, the Tourism Indicator (IT) “aims to estimate the general evolution of economic activity in the tourism sector in the Autonomous Region of the Azores”.

"IT-Açores results from the addition of estimates of overnight stays recorded in the three types of tourist accommodation and is released approximately three weeks before the publication of the Tourist Activity highlights", the publication reads.

The estimate of overnight stays in the hotel industry, rural tourism, and local accommodation "uses the values recorded in the Guest Stay Survey in Hotel Industry and other accommodation" and the "extrapolation of trends according to the expected response rate in each case ".