“After registering a decrease in July, overnight stays by residents increased by 4.6%, a higher growth than that recorded by non-residents (+3.4%), which slowed down for the third consecutive month. “Overnight stays by residents totalled 3.6 million and those by non-residents totalled 6.9 million”, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

In external markets, the UK remained the main source market (17.1% share), having registered a growth of 1.3% in August, followed by Spain (16.3% share), which grew by 4.6%. Despite a 2.9% decrease in August, the French market rounded out the top 3 with a share of 11.3%.

In the group of the ten main source markets in August, the ones that grew the most were Canada (+11.2%) and the US (+8.4%). On the other hand, the Brazilian and Italian markets registered the largest decreases among the ten main source markets, with a drop of 5.9% and 0.8%, respectively.

In the eighth month of the year, all regions recorded growth in overnight stays, with the exception of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (-0.3%). The largest increases were seen in the Setúbal Peninsula (+8.1%) and the Autonomous Region of the Azores (+7.5%), with more modest increases in the Algarve (+1.1%) and the West and Tagus Valley (+1.6%).

Staycations

Overnight stays by residents increased in all regions, except the Autonomous Regions of Madeira (-14.9%) and the Azores (-1.5%). The most significant increases were recorded in the Setúbal Peninsula (+10.7%) and the Alentejo (+10.3%). While overnight stays by non-residents recorded the most significant increases in the Azores Autonomous Region (+10.5%) and the North (+9.2%). Conversely, there were decreases in the West and Tagus Valley (-3.1%), Alentejo (-0.5%) and Algarve (-0.2%).

Although overnight stays by residents and non-residents increased in the eighth month of the year, the average stay in tourist accommodation establishments fell by 2%, to 2.7 nights. The statistics office notes that the average stay for residents (2.45 nights) fell by 2.1% and that for non-residents (3.03 nights) fell by 1.8%.

In this indicator, the greatest increases continued to be observed in Madeira (4.85 nights) and Algarve (4.31 nights), with the shortest stays occurring in the Centre (1.99 nights), West and Tagus Valley (2.05 nights) and North (2.09 nights).