“The Tourism Indicator predicts that around 642 thousand overnight stays will have been recorded in August in the Autonomous Region of the Azores in all tourist accommodation establishments (hotels, local accommodation and rural tourism)”, reads a publication by SREA, released on its website.

According to the Regional Statistics Service of the Azores, “the value of this estimate of overnight stays is 7.4% higher when compared to the final value for the same month (597.6 thousand)”.

The Tourism Indicator report also highlights the number of passengers arriving at airports in the Azores in August, originating from abroad and within the national territory (excluding flights between islands in the archipelago).

According to data previously revealed by SREA, passengers arriving on international flights (53,546) increased by 23.4% compared to the same period last year, while travellers arriving from the mainland and Madeira (110,254) increased by 6.1%.

The publication also highlights withdrawals and purchases at ATMs and automatic payment terminals (TPA) made by nationals (207.9 million euros) and foreigners (53 million euros) in August in the Azores.

Purchases made at TPA reached 205 million euros (9.9% more than in the same period last year), of which 157.3 million were made with national bank cards (8.5% more) and 47.7 million with international bank cards (14.6% more).

Withdrawals from ATMs reached 55.9 million euros (down 1.3%), of which 50.6 million were domestic (down 1%) and 5.3 million were international (down 4.2%).

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

“The TI-Açores is the result of adding together the estimates of overnight stays recorded in the three types of tourist accommodation and is released approximately three weeks before the publication of the Tourism Activity report”, the publication states.

The estimate of overnight stays in the hotel industry as a whole, rural tourism and local accommodation “uses the values ​​recorded in the Survey on Guest Stays in Hotels and Other Accommodation” and the “extrapolation of trends according to the expected response rate in each case”.