Last year, the weight of local accommodation in national overnight stays was around 42%, instead of the 15% reported by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The value represents a difference of 36.3 million overnight stays compared to the real value, according to the study “The Perception of the Value of Tourism in Portugal”, presented at the Porto Customs House on the occasion of the 1st National Congress of the Local Accommodation Association in Portugal (ALEP).

The study states that “official statistics do not reflect the reality and importance of local accommodation” and that “INE only counts local accommodation with ten or more beds in its statistics”, contrary to “Eurostat data that show that more than 90% of overnight stays occur in accommodation with less than ten beds”.

The study carried out by the Faculty of Economics of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Nova SBE) and the Local Accommodation Association in Portugal also shows that the proportion of foreigners is greater in Local Accommodation than in hotels, with 82% and 71%, respectively.

By location, Local Accommodation accounted for a greater proportion of overnight stays than hotels in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and in the North Region, in the past. In the Municipality of Porto, this proportion was 60%, while in the Municipality of Lisbon, it was 48%, in line with the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.

Last year, tourism reached historic highs, accounting for almost half of the economy’s growth. Tourism activity generated a direct and indirect contribution of 33.8 billion euros to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The study reveals that “in direct terms alone, each euro of tourist consumption in the country represents 0.48 cents of Gross Value Added (GVA)”. The textile industry sector ranks second (0.40 cents of GVA), followed by Agriculture and Livestock (0.38 cents).

“This means that the tourism sector has a higher “GVA coefficient” than many traditional industries in the Portuguese economy”, concludes the study.