According to the Spanish Tourism Institute, geographical and cultural proximity continues to play in Spain's favour as a preferred destination for travelling outside of Portugal, among other reasons, due to the increase in prices in Portuguese tourist regions (Algarve, Alentejo, Madeira, Azores and large cities, driven by the record number of visits by foreign tourists), where the average price for four nights (160.46 euros) has already exceeded the Spanish average (158.06 euros), says the institute based on data from Eurostat.

“Inflation continues to be a fundamental factor for the purchasing power of Portuguese families and can affect both consumption and the ability to save, but, for now, it does not appear to affect trips to Spain”, says the report.

Considering that “there are currently no political or social factors that affect tourist trips” in Portugal, Turespaña admits that “the only factors that can influence tourist trips by residents in Portugal are of an economic nature”.

Data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE.ES) reveals that Portuguese spending in Spain totalled 1.723 billion euros, 9.7% more than in 2023, registering significant growth compared to pre-pandemic values ​​(+80% compared to 2019).

Last year, says Turespaña, Portuguese spending abroad reached close to 8.8 billion euros (+10.9% compared to 2023), also exceeding the spending prior to the pandemic (+31.6% compared to 2019). In turn, data from the Spanish institute also shows that Portuguese spending on tourism within the country also increased, reaching 3.7 billion euros (+11.4% compared to 2023 and +38.6% compared to 2019).

For 2025, both figures are therefore expected to continue growing (+8.6% and +8.3%, respectively), although in both cases a slowdown in the rate of growth is observed.

The scheduled capacities from Portugal to Spain, between April 1 and September 30, 2025, recorded a growth of 3.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. Spain is the fourth destination country with the highest volume of scheduled seats (10.1% of the total), surpassed only by the interior of Portugal (19%), the United Kingdom (14.3%) and France (10.4%).

“It is important to highlight that the Portuguese visit Spain preferably by land (in 2024, 73.9% of the total, 8.7% more than in 2023), so that variations in air capacities do not have a significant impact on tourist flows to our country”, says Turespaña.

For this summer, only France has a reduction in the number of seats (2.5 million, -3.3%), while there are increases for Germany (1.8 million, +8.4%), Italy (1.1 million, +12.6%), the Netherlands (931 thousand, +10.1%), Brazil (860 thousand, +10.9%) and, to a lesser extent, Cape Verde (235 thousand, +25.8%) and Turkey (175 thousand, +12.8%), destinations preferably accessible by air.

In addition, searches for flights from Portugal to Spain, this spring/summer 2025, increased by 17.4% compared to the same period in 2024 (representing 16.7% of the total searches for this period). However, searches for international flights recorded even greater growth (+25.4%), surpassing those for Spain, except for some periods in October and December 2024.

In terms of accommodation search shares on Google, Spain continued to stand out as the most sought-after destination by the Portuguese during the month of March 2025, with a market share of 38.7% (-2.8 p.p. compared to March 2024), well above its main competing destinations (such as France, Italy or the United Kingdom), which recorded a slight increase in their respective shares.