Madeira Tourism Statistics 2026: Airport +12%, Record Cruises and the 2.75M Nights INE Does Not Count

Two counts of the same island

DREM publishes three totals for 2025. "Global" tourist accommodation, 12.9 million nights, includes holiday camps, campsites and youth hostels. "Collective" accommodation, 12.7 million (+8.3%), is hotels, local lodging and rural tourism. Within it, hotels recorded 8.6 million nights (+4.4%), local lodging 3.8 million (+18.7%) and rural and manor-house tourism 288,200 (+4.0%).

Eurostat's region PT30 shows 9,952,837 nights for the same year: 8,764,685 in hotels, 1,171,523 in holiday and short-stay accommodation, and 16,629 in campsites. The hotel lines roughly agree. The difference sits almost entirely in local lodging, where DREM counts about 3.8 million nights and the INE-scope series about 1.2 million. DREM says so itself: to compare its data with INE's, "it is necessary to exclude local lodging with fewer than 10 beds" (DREM via ECO, 31 January 2025).

The scope matters because the two series move at different speeds. Small local lodging grew more than four times as fast as hotels in 2025, so the all-sizes count flatters Madeira's growth against regions that only publish the INE basis. Compare like with like and Madeira's 2025 volume growth of 3.9% sits beside the Canaries (+2.9%) and the Azores (+2.3%), not far ahead of them.

There is a quieter inconsistency inside DREM's own numbers. In February 2025 DREM reported 11.7 million nights for 2024. Its 2025 total of 12.9 million at +7.9% implies a 2024 base of about 11.96 million (derived). Either 2024 was revised upward or the growth rate is computed on a different scope. DREM's 2025 revenue moved too, from €894.2 million in its December report to €887.1 million in the final results. This article uses the final figures throughout.

The airport: +12% in 2025, about +3% in 2026

Madeira airport (Cristiano Ronaldo, FNC) carried 5,390,975 passengers in 2025 on Eurostat's count, 12.2% more than in 2024 and 67.8% more than in 2019. DREM's release gives the same 12.2% and about 35,900 commercial movements (+13.0%) at an average load factor of 85.5%. Porto Santo added 256,700 passengers (+3.6%) on DREM's count, or 243,856 on Eurostat's. For the region the total was about 5.65 million, up 11.8%. The plan's "+12%" is the Madeira airport figure; it should not be attached to the regional total, as Wikipedia does.

The growth was international. Foreign traffic rose 17.4% to 3,179,300 passengers and made up 56.2% of the total; domestic traffic, mostly to Lisbon and Porto, rose 5.4% to 2,474,100. Among international passengers the UK supplied 27.1%, Germany 21.0%, France 9.7% and Poland 9.5% (DREM). Non-scheduled flights carried 245,115 passengers, 4.5% of the total (Eurostat, derived).

In 2025 Madeira grew faster than every other large Portuguese airport. Lisbon rose 2.9%, Porto 6.4%, Faro 5.9% and Ponta Delgada 2.2%. The five main Canary Islands airports grew 3.6% to 54.75 million (AENA). At 20.8 passengers per resident, Madeira's airport is now as busy relative to population as Faro (21.0), as our Algarve tourism statistics showed for the mainland's most tourism-dependent region.

Then growth slowed sharply. DREM's monthly airport releases show the region up 4.3% in January 2026, 5.6% in February and 2.3% in March. The first half closed at 2,768,700 passengers, +3.1%, and June was the first month to fall (−0.5%; Madeira airport −1.1%). August, the peak, brought 606,200 passengers across both airports, +3.7%, at a load factor of 91.9%. July's figure had not been published when this article was written. The 2025 jump came largely from capacity: easyJet now flies 15 routes to Funchal and plans 1.5 million seats in 2026 (+6%), and United added a seasonal Newark service in June 2025 that returned on 16 May 2026, three weeks earlier, at three flights a week.

The airport has a constraint that no mainland gateway shares. Landings at Funchal are subject to mandatory wind limits set by sector in the Portuguese AIP, from 15 knots mean and 25 knots gust from the north-west to 25 knots from the south-west. On 2–3 March 2026 storm Regina forced 176 cancellations over two days, affecting about 35,000 passengers; in December 2025 storm Emília caused 185 (DN Madeira, 4 March 2026). On 1 July 2025, 57 of 119 scheduled flights were cancelled. ANA, ANAC and NAV publish no annual count of diversions or cancellations, so the cost of wind to the island's tourism cannot be measured from public data.

Residents' fares shape the domestic half of the traffic. Since April 2025 a Madeira resident pays at most €79 for a mainland return, students €59, with the State reimbursing the rest. A law published on 1 June 2026 removed the cap on the eligible fare. The only annual cost figure in circulation, €45 million for Madeira in 2023, comes from a newspaper opinion column rather than a public account. The Lobo Marinho ferry to Porto Santo carried 404,600 passengers in 2025 (−0.2%) and about 153,400 in the first half of 2026 (+4.8%).

Cruises: records on every counter

Madeira's port authority, APRAM, counted 746,257 cruise passengers in calendar 2025, a record, on 331 calls; DREM's transit-only count was 729,765 (+1.8%), also a record. The 2025/26 season (September to May) set another, with 791,707 passengers. DREM's first-half 2026 count rose 18.5% to 443,355. The "record highs" in the plan title stand.

Two qualifications carry over from our Madeira cruise statistics analysis. Growth in calendar 2025 was modest, between 1.8% and 2.4% depending on the counter, and the jump in 2026 came in the first half. And the €62 million "economic impact" quoted each year is a 2022 survey rate of about €61 a day multiplied by passengers and crew, not a measured impact. Cruise passengers add the equivalent of 2.88 per resident (derived), against 20.8 air passengers.

Source markets: Germany first, Portugal rising, Britain falling

Germany is Madeira's largest market by nights. In 2025 German residents spent about 2.5 million nights in collective accommodation (19.4%, +2.7%), British residents 2.1 million (16.8%, −0.6%) and Portuguese residents 2.1 million (16.2%, +23.9%). Foreign residents in total accounted for 10.8 million nights, up 5.4%; Portuguese residents for 2.1 million, up 23.6% (DREM, all accommodation).

The domestic market was the main driver of 2025. Portuguese residents overtook the UK in the second quarter and Germany in the third. Domestic air traffic rose 5.4% and local-lodging nights 18.7% in the same year; DREM does not publish a market split by accommodation type that would show how far the two are linked. On Porto Santo, 59.5% of fourth-quarter 2025 nights were by Portuguese residents, the highest domestic share in the region.

The UK is a special case. British residents were the largest group on international flights (27.1%) but only second in nights, and the two measures differ: air passengers count every arrival and departure, including people staying with friends or in homes they own, while nights count only stays in tourist accommodation. Their nights fell 0.6% in 2025, 2.0% in the first quarter of 2026, 8.8% in the second and 5.9% in July. Poland, which grew strongly in 2025, fell 8.0%, 2.5% and 6.7% over the same periods. The Netherlands rose 17.0%, 9.5% and 11.5%.

North America is small and fast. DREM recorded 284,345 nights and 79,536 guests from North America in 2025, 322.5% more nights than in 2019, which moved the market from eleventh to sixth among foreign markets (DREM via DN Madeira, 17 June 2026). The 2019 base was about 67,300 nights (derived). The regional government is studying direct links to Miami and Toronto. Our US vs Spain source-market analysis tracks the same American growth at national level.

2025's money and 2026's prices

Accommodation revenue reached €887.1 million in 2025, up 16.6%, of which room revenue was €637.0 million (+17.8%). RevPAR rose 16.2% to €97.03 and the average daily rate 13.3% to €123.86. Bed occupancy was 68.1% and room occupancy 78.3% on an average capacity of 40,235 beds and 18,137 rooms (DREM). RevPAR and ADR exclude local lodging under ten beds; DREM does not say whether the revenue total includes them.

Over six years the price effect dominates. RevPAR was €44.29 in 2019 and €97.03 in 2025, an increase of 119% (derived from DREM). The average daily rate implied for 2019 is about €68.85, so rates rose about 80% while INE-scope nights rose 33%. Revenue grew 35.9% in two years, from €652.7 million in 2023 (ACIF digest of DREM data) to €887.1 million.

2026 continued the pattern with less volume. From January to July nights rose 2.2% and guests 5.8%, but revenue rose 7.8% to €534.6 million and the average daily rate 8.9% to €131.32. Bed occupancy fell: 67.5% in the second quarter (−5.3 points) and 70.5% in July (−4.9 points), as more capacity chased slower demand. In August, on INE's basis, nights rose 0.8% while revenue rose 11.6% to €112 million; Madeira's August ADR of €163.2 (+11.7%) was the largest regional increase in Portugal and its RevPAR of €138.1 the second highest (INE via DN Madeira, 30 September 2026).

How seasonal is "eternal spring"?

Madeira's marketing promise of year-round spring can be tested month by month. On Eurostat's 2025 data August was the busiest month with 1,038,523 nights and December the quietest with 622,783. The ratio is 1.67: the trough month still carries 60% of the peak (derived). The airport's monthly profile is almost identical, 544,734 passengers in August against 329,763 in January, a ratio of 1.65.

That passes the test against mainland Portugal. The Algarve's August had 5.26 times January's nights in 2025 and Grande Lisboa's peak month 1.96 times its trough. It fails against the obvious competitor. The Canary Islands' ratio was 1.34, and their quietest month was May, not winter. The Balearics, at 46.5, are a different business entirely. Madeira is the least seasonal of the Portuguese regions this series has measured; it is not the least seasonal island in the Atlantic.

Seasonality also differs by product. Cruise traffic peaks in November and December, when about 36% of 2025 passengers arrived, and nearly vanishes from July to September, when about 4% did (derived from DREM and APRAM). Air traffic and hotel nights peak in July and August, partly because of the domestic market. The two flows offset each other, which is part of why Madeira's overall curve is flat.

The second economy: wine, bananas and the free zone

Tourism is not Madeira's only export. DREM's latest Tourism Satellite Account, for 2019, put tourism's gross value added at €723.1 million, 16.2% of the regional total and twice the national share of 8.1%; tourism employed 23,836 people, 17.0% of jobs. The often-quoted 28.8% is a different measure: tourism consumption of €1,477.4 million as a share of GDP, which includes imported goods sold to visitors. No account has been published for any year after 2019.

Madeira wine is the best known of the other exports and small in money. First sales were 3.1 million litres worth €20.6 million in 2025, down 2.6% in volume and 1.2% in value (IVBAM data via DREM, 16 January 2026). About 81% of the volume and 73% of the value left the region (derived from rounded figures). France is the largest market; the US is the largest outside the EU. Bottled wine averaged €7.88 a litre, bulk €2.84. Total first-sale value is about 2.3% of 2025 accommodation revenue (derived).

Bananas are larger by weight and smaller by value. Sales fell 14.4% to 20,900 tonnes in 2025, of which 81.4% was shipped out of the region, mostly to the mainland (DREM, 23 January 2026). EU POSEI support was €0.29 a kilogram on 25,207 tonnes in 2023, €7 million in total, paid to 2,815 producers (European Court of Auditors via ECO). Banana terraces are part of the landscape visitors come to see, but no study values them as a tourism asset.

The third pillar is fiscal. The Madeira International Business Centre (CINM, the "free zone") had 2,718 licensed entities and more than 4,000 jobs, and produced about €148 million in tax a year, 13% of regional tax revenue, on 2022 data quoted by the Finance Minister (DN Madeira, 28 October 2024). The European Commission's 2020 decision found that part of the 2007–2014 regime was illegal state aid; the General Court upheld it in June 2023 and the Court of Justice rejected Portugal's and the region's appeals on 16 January 2025. The 2026 State Budget extended the 5% corporate tax rate to 2033, with new licences allowed until the end of 2026. No official estimate of the free zone's share of regional GDP exists.

Local lodging, housing and Funchal's pause

Local lodging is where Madeira's growth and its housing pressure meet. Funchal had 3,184 local-lodging registrations and about 9,000 beds in 2025, 182% more registrations than in 2022, and local lodging was more than a quarter of the city's lodging capacity (RTP, DN Madeira). In September 2025 the city suspended new registrations in apartment buildings for six months, extended the suspension in March 2026 and in June 2026 suspended parts of its master plan pending a new regulation. Unlike Lisbon's 5% and 10% containment rules, Funchal has not published a ratio of local lodging to permanent homes.

House-price headlines need care. Idealista's asking prices for Madeira rose 14.6% to €3,715 per m² in December 2025. INE's median price of dwellings actually sold fell 8.3% year on year in the fourth quarter, to €2,655 per m², one of only two of Portugal's 26 sub-regions to fall. Rents moved the other way: INE's median for new leases in Madeira was €12.78 per m² in the second quarter of 2026, up 17.4% and second only to Grande Lisboa. On idealista, foreigners made up 32.4% of purchase demand in Funchal, against 17% nationally; that is search demand, not completed sales.

Madeira's population is growing. Eurostat counted 259,440 residents on 1 January 2025 and DREM 266,130 at the end of 2025, against 250,744 in the 2021 census. Tourism intensity therefore rises more slowly than tourism: INE-scope nights per resident were 38.4 in 2025 on the January population, or 48.5 on DREM's all-sizes count and the year-end population (derived). The Ponta do Sol digital-nomad village, opened in February 2021 with about 75 people on site and more than 7,500 online registrations by July 2021, has published no participant count since.

Environment and risk

Fire is the most visible recent risk. The August 2016 fire around Funchal killed three people on NASA's count (four on EUMETRAIN's), burned about 3,000–3,200 hectares and destroyed between 105 and more than 150 homes, depending on the source. The fire of 14–27 August 2024 burned 5,116 hectares, 139 of them in the Laurissilva World Heritage forest, after the regional government had said the forest was untouched. In 2025, 261 rural fires burned a total of 2.5 hectares, a 99.9% fall in area (Regional Civil Protection via RTP).

Floods are the other. The storm of 20 February 2010 killed 47 people with four missing (51 dead in other counts) and caused €1.08 billion of direct damage on the EU Solidarity Fund's assessment, against an early press estimate of €1.4 billion. Rockfalls and storms still close trails: at least five of the 42 classified trails were partly closed in February 2025, and weather closed the network on three days in early 2026. The trail fees and 30-minute slots introduced since 2024 are Madeira's main carrying-capacity tool, and the study behind them is unpublished for 41 of 42 trails.

Climate data cut both ways for the eternal-spring brand. 2025 was 0.8 °C above the 1991–2020 normal but cooler than 2024, and much wetter: Chão do Areeiro recorded 2,825.7 mm, 952 mm more than the year before (DREM/IPMA). Wind is the operational risk that matters most to visitors, and it is the one with no published annual series.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers. Madeira is the least seasonal region this series has measured: the quietest month carries 60% of August's traffic, so winter and spring visits are not off-season in the mainland sense, and rates outside summer are lower: the average daily rate was €114 in the first quarter of 2026 against €163 in August. Book flexible tickets or allow a buffer day before a connection, because strong wind closes Funchal to landings several times a year and a two-day storm can cancel 150 to 200 flights. Expect a €2 tourist tax per night for up to seven nights in ten of eleven municipalities (Porto Moniz is the reported exception), and a trail fee of €4.50 to €10.50 with a timed slot on classified walks. Most foreign visitors miss Porto Santo, a ferry or short flight away, where most winter guests are Portuguese. Our Madeira guide covers where to stay and how to plan the island.

Tourism businesses and investors. The binding constraint has moved from access to price. Air passengers grew 12% in 2025 and average bed capacity 2.1%, and 2026 shows the result: occupancy down four to five points, nights up about 2%, rates up 9–12%. That is a yield market, sustained by Germans, Portuguese residents and a growing North American segment while the British and Polish markets shrink. Anyone underwriting Madeira on DREM's 7.9% volume growth is reading the wrong series; on INE's basis the island grew 3.9%, and the extra growth is in small local lodging that Funchal has now frozen in apartment buildings. The thresholds to watch are bed occupancy below 65% for a full year, ADR growth falling below inflation, and a second consecutive year of UK decline. A published cost series for the resident fare subsidy and an annual wind-disruption count would remove the two largest unknowns in Madeira's access economics.

Journalists and analysts. Safe to cite: Madeira airport 5,390,975 passengers in 2025, +12.2% (Eurostat; DREM 5.4M); DREM 12.9 million nights (+7.9%), 2.5 million guests and €887.1 million revenue in 2025, all accommodation; Eurostat 9,952,837 nights (+3.9%) on the INE scope; APRAM 746,257 cruise passengers in 2025 and 791,707 in the 2025/26 season; Germany 19.4%, UK 16.8% and Portugal 16.2% of nights; peak-to-trough ratio 1.67; tourism 16.2% of regional GVA in 2019. Do not repeat: "2 million tourists" (guest check-ins), "28.8% of GDP" as tourism's output, "house prices +14.6%" as transaction prices, "one of the world's most dangerous airports" as a statistic, or DREM growth rates beside INE regional rates. The series finding Madeira adds: its statistics office publishes an accommodation count that includes small local lodging, which INE's regional series omits, so Madeira's most complete figure is the one that cannot be compared with any other region. Our Porto tourism statistics found the same blind spot from the other side: Porto's tourist tax implies 1.6 times the nights INE counts.