According to the Association of Port Wine Companies (AEVP), the new record of 1,376,243 visitors reached last year is an increase of 6.1 percent compared to 2017, which until now held the record for the best year ever.
According to data provided by the association, in 2019 Spanish visitors overtook the French and began to lead the ‘ranking’ of visits to Port wine cellars, with nearly 192,000 tourists, corresponding to a weight of 13.94 percent and an increase of 20.0 percent over the previous year.
The French followed, with a weight of 13.55 percent and a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percent, to a total of 186,483 visitors, and the Portuguese (175,758 visitors), equivalent to 12.77 percent of the total and an increase of 32.6 percent compared to 2018.
The USA, the UK and Brazil complete the ‘top’ six visitor markets for Port wine cellars, with shares of 8.81 percent, 8.55 percent and 8.43 percent of the total respectively.
In terms of year-on-year evolution, US visitors led with a year-on-year increase of 33.0 percent in visitors in 2019, followed by Portuguese visitors.