This summer in Portugal - and the Algarve, in particular - once again registered an increase in North American tourists. A trend that began after the pandemic, with an increase of around 70% since then.

This year guarantees looks to be better states the president of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve to Renascença, if this trend continues and could even be better. This is because if the direct air connection between New York and Faro, which has since been postponed until 2025, was already operating, there would be many more, consider the person responsible.

"It's a shame we didn't have a direct flight to the United States, which was planned because that would have brought around 20 thousand more tourists. But people come in other ways, through Frankfurt, or Dublin or Lisbon and we continue to have many Americans. There are superior-class hotels where the first market is already the American one", says Hélder Martins.

As for the decline in the presence of Portuguese people in the Algarve, those responsible for the sector consider that national tourists are traveling to destinations where they will not be able to go during the pandemic. And they guarantee that the rise in other markets - the North American and others - has compensated for the national drop.