Key takeaways
- Portugal sold a record 89.7 million nights in all registered accommodation in 2025 (INE, +1.6%), but non-resident nights grew only 0.6%, slower than in Spain, Greece or Croatia.
- Portuguese residents supplied about 73% of the additional nights in 2025 (Eurostat, derived; 74.3% on INE's tourist-accommodation basis), reversing the 2019–2025 pattern in which foreigners drove growth.
- Banco de Portugal travel receipts reached a record €29.1bn (+5.0%), 58.8% above 2019; deflated by Portugal's hotel and restaurant price index they are 15.7% higher, in line with foreign nights (+16.3%).
- Receipts per foreign night rose from €355 in 2019 to €485 in 2025, unchanged in real terms (derived). The 2019–2025 gain in money is price on top of volume.
- INE estimates 29.9 million non-resident tourists in 2025 (+3.3%). The "31 million" quoted by the Secretary of State and the "33–34 million" guest counts are different or unsupported measures.
- Accommodation revenue was €7,133.2M (+6.9%), RevPAR €72.4 and ADR €124.5 on INE's definitive series; the widely quoted €7.2bn and +7.2% were the superseded February flash.
- Norte (+602,673 nights) and Madeira (+375,656) supplied 72% of 2025's national growth, while the Algarve fell 0.2% and Grande Lisboa grew 0.7% (Eurostat, derived).
- Tourism's direct GVA was 8.1% of the economy and 11.8% of GDP including indirect effects in 2025 (INE Satellite Account); "20% of GDP" and "one job in five" are WTTC model figures, not official statistics.
Portugal's tourism year 2025 broke every headline record. Registered accommodation sold 89.7 million nights, airports handled 73.75 million passengers and international travel receipts reached €29.1 billion. Foreign demand for beds grew 0.6%.
That last figure is the year. Non-resident nights rose from 59.7 million to 60.0 million on Eurostat's count, slower than Spain (+2.1%), Greece (+2.2%) and Croatia (+0.8%). Portuguese residents supplied 73% of the extra nights. The money kept rising faster than the volume: receipts grew 5.0%, accommodation revenue 6.9% and room revenue per available room 4.4%. Since 2019 receipts are up 58.8% while nights are up 15.2%.
Strip out prices and the two lines meet. Portugal's hotel and restaurant price index rose 37.3% between 2019 and 2025. Deflated by it, receipts grew 15.7%, almost exactly the growth in foreign nights (+16.3%). Each foreign night brought in €485 of receipts in 2025 against €355 in 2019, the same amount in real terms. This report sets out the 2025 numbers on every published basis, shows which of them are being quoted wrongly, and explains why a record year left Banco de Portugal forecasting a slowdown.
| Indicator | 2019 | 2024 | 2025 | vs 2024 | vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nights, all accommodation (INE) | 77.82M | 88.35M | 89.72M | +1.6% | +15.3% |
| Guests, all accommodation (INE) | 29.50M | 34.03M | 34.79M | +2.2% | +18.0% |
| Non-resident tourists (INE) | 24.6M | ≈28.9M | 29.9M | +3.3% | +21.5% |
| Non-resident nights (Eurostat) | 51.59M | 59.66M | 60.02M | +0.6% | +16.3% |
| Resident nights (Eurostat) | 26.00M | 28.42M | 29.41M | +3.5% | +13.1% |
| Accommodation revenue (INE) | €4,295.8M | €6,674.6M | €7,133.2M | +6.9% | +66.1% |
| RevPAR (INE) | €49.4 | €69.4 | €72.4 | +4.4% | +46.6% |
| Average daily rate (INE) | €89.2 | €120.1 | €124.5 | +3.7% | +39.6% |
| Travel receipts (Banco de Portugal) | €18,332M | €27,743M | €29,119M | +5.0% | +58.8% |
| Airport passengers (INE) | 60.11M | 70.42M | 73.75M | +4.7% | +22.7% |
| Establishments, 31 July (INE) | 7,155 | 8,506 | 8,778 | +3.2% | +22.7% |
| Seasonality rate, Jul–Sep share (INE) | n/a | 36.6% | 36.4% | −0.2 pp | n/a |
Volume: a record that barely grew
INE's annual release, Estatísticas do Turismo 2025 (9 July 2026), counts 34.8 million guests and 89.7 million nights across all registered accommodation, including campsites, holiday camps and youth hostels. Guests rose 2.2% and nights 1.6%. Against 2019 guests are up 18.0% and nights 15.3%. The average stay fell again, to 2.58 nights from 2.64 in 2019, so Portugal is selling more, shorter trips.
Three totals circulate and all are correct on their own basis. 89.72 million is INE's all-types figure. 82.0 million covers tourist accommodation only (hotels, alojamento local of ten or more beds and rural tourism), the basis of INE's monthly flash; the February flash said 82.1 million before revision. 89.43 million is Eurostat's total for hotels, short-stay accommodation and campsites. The gap between the first and third is mostly holiday camps and youth hostels. Quote one and name it.
The split by residence explains the year. On INE's all-types basis resident nights rose 3.5% to 29.5 million and non-resident nights 0.6% to 60.2 million. Eurostat's figures give residents 988,857 of the 1,353,939 additional nights, or 73.0%. INE's tourist-accommodation basis gives 74.3%. Our analysis of domestic tourism shows this is a one-year pattern: between 2019 and 2025 residents supplied only 29% of the growth, and their share of nights is still below 2019.
Stays are shortening on both sides. Eurostat's arrivals and nights give an average of 3.07 nights for non-residents in 2025, down from 3.18 in 2019 and 3.76 in 2010, and 2.18 nights for residents. More arrivals with shorter stays raise check-in counts, cleaning costs and transfer demand faster than they raise nights.
Growth was also concentrated in one product. Eurostat's breakdown by type shows hotels and similar establishments adding 2.25 million nights (+3.4%) to 67.7 million, three-quarters of the total. Holiday and short-stay accommodation, which in Portugal means mainly alojamento local units of ten or more beds and rural tourism, lost 646,000 nights (−4.2%). Campsites fell 3.4% to 7.0 million. Hotels grew by more than the whole market.
Regionally the gains came from two places. Norte added 602,673 nights and Madeira 375,656, together 72% of the national increase. The Algarve, Portugal's largest region by nights, slipped 0.2%. Grande Lisboa grew 0.7% with its airport out of slots. Península de Setúbal fell 3.5%. The table below links each region to its article in this series.
Lisbon municipality alone took 18.0% of the country's nights in 2025 and Porto 7.4%, according to INE's municipal shares; in both cities about 85% of nights were sold to non-residents. Our Lisbon tourism statistics explain why the capital cannot grow much faster until it has more runway capacity. The Algarve's flat year matches its dependence on a British market that also went flat, covered in the Algarve report.
Money: €29.1bn, and what inflation takes back
Banco de Portugal's travel credits, the balance-of-payments measure of what non-residents spend in Portugal, were €29,119 million in 2025 on the current Eurostat vintage (2 October 2026). Growth was 4.96% on 2024 and 58.8% on 2019. Travel debits, what residents spend abroad, rose 4.5% to €7,156 million. The surplus of €21,963 million equals 7.1% of GDP; ECO reported it as the highest since the series began in 1948.
Travel made up 21.7% of Portugal's exports of goods and services in 2025, up from 19.5% in 2019, and 47.9% of services exports. Receipts equal 9.4% of GDP, level with Greece and behind only Croatia, Malta and Cyprus among the EU countries we checked.
The UK remained the largest market by spending at €4.28 billion, followed by Germany (€3.37bn), France (€3.24bn), the United States (€3.14bn) and Spain (€2.84bn). Our diversification index shows those top three took 37.2% of receipts in 2025, the lowest share since at least 2010.
The receipts series is in current euros. Portugal's annual HICP for restaurants and hotels (COICOP 11) rose from 111.05 in 2019 to 152.52 in 2025, a 37.3% increase, against 20.4% for all items. Deflated by all-items inflation, receipts grew 32.0% in real terms. Deflated by the tourism-specific index, they grew 15.7%. The second is the fairer test, because it measures what a visitor's euro buys in Portugal, and on it the growth since 2019 is volume. Spending per foreign night is flat in real terms (−0.6%, derived).
Accommodation revenue tells the same story more directly. INE's total revenue rose from €4,295.8 million in 2019 to €7,133.2 million in 2025 (+66.1%); RevPAR from €49.4 to €72.4 (+46.6%); average daily rate from €89.2 to €124.5 (+39.6%). Eurostat's HICP for accommodation services rose 44.1% over the same period, faster than the EU average of 35.3%. Deflated by it, RevPAR is 1.7% higher than in 2019 and the average rate 3.1% lower. Per available room, hotels earn about what they earned in 2019 once prices are taken out.
2025 alone breaks the pattern. The accommodation HICP fell 0.2% for the year while INE's ADR rose 3.7% and total revenue 6.9%. The two series measure different things: the HICP tracks a like-for-like basket, while ADR moves with the mix of rooms sold. A year in which hotels gained share, five-star openings were numerous and lower-priced short-stay lodging shrank would raise average rates without any single room getting dearer. That reading fits the Eurostat type split, though INE has not published a mix decomposition.
Hotel consultancies publish higher numbers. JLL reported a 2025 national hotel ADR of €166, occupancy of 67.6% and RevPAR of €112 (12 June 2026). Its sample is weighted to branded, urban and upscale hotels; INE's covers every licensed establishment. Both can be right. They cannot be compared.
People: 29.9 million tourists, 34.8 million guests, no visitor count
INE estimates 29.9 million non-resident tourist arrivals in 2025, up 3.3% after a 9.3% rise in 2024 and about 21.5% above 2019's 24.6 million. A tourist in INE's sense is a person who spends at least one night, counted once per trip whether they sleep in a hotel or with family. Spain supplied 23.8% of them, the UK 11.9% and France 10.9%.
Guests are a different measure. A guest is a check-in at a registered establishment, Portuguese or foreign, so one traveller who moves from Lisbon to the Algarve counts twice. That is why 34.8 million guests can coexist with 29.9 million foreign tourists and about 13.5 million arrivals by residents (Eurostat). The "31 million tourists" the Secretary of State for Tourism quoted in January 2026, before INE's release, is not on any official series. Our US versus Spain analysis shows how much rankings change with the measure: Spain leads on tourists by 3.7 to 1, the US leads on hotel nights in the headline series.
Receipts per tourist were about €974 in 2025 (derived: €29.1bn ÷ 29.9M), against €745 in 2019. The €265.1 "average spend" printed in some reports of the July release is residents' spend per trip, not foreigners'.
Three populations remain uncounted. Same-day visitors, including Spanish day-trippers across the land border and cruise passengers in transit, have no INE or Eurostat estimate. Nights in alojamento local of fewer than ten beds are outside INE's accommodation survey; Madeira's regional office counts them and finds 2.75 million more nights than INE in its region alone. And nights in second homes and with friends are captured only in the demand-side surveys.
Airports carried 73.75 million passengers in 2025 (+4.7%, INE), 22.7% above 2019, as our national airports report sets out. Passenger growth ran well ahead of foreign nights. Part of the gap is residents: INE's survey of residents' travel counts 3.86 million trips abroad in 2025, up 12.5%. Cruise ports added roughly 1.86 million passenger movements (derived from Lisbon, Leixões, Madeira, the Azores and Portimão; Setúbal not found). No national cruise total is published.
Markets: who grew and who fell
On Eurostat's series including campsites, the UK held 17.3% of foreign nights in 2025, Germany 11.8%, Spain 9.4%, the United States 9.1% and France 8.0%. The top three took 38.5%, a record low, down from 57.9% in 2005. British nights fell 1.6% to 10.06 million. Germany passed France as the second-largest market by spending (€3.37bn) for the first time since 1996.
The long-run gains came from across the Atlantic. Between 2019 and 2025 foreign nights rose by 8.43 million; the United States and Canada supplied 3.61 million of them, 42.8%, with US nights up 2.76 million. Canadian nights rose 85.8%, Polish nights 61% and South Korean nights 49%. France lost 0.41 million nights and Brazil 0.56 million, the two largest falls, in both cases while diaspora travel and resident populations grew. Spanish nights are 5.9% below their 2023 peak.
In 2025 itself the mix barely moved, because total foreign demand barely moved. The registered data also understate markets that stay with family or in small rentals, which is why France and Brazil can show more trips and fewer recorded nights at the same time.
Seasonality: the summer peak is flattening
INE's seasonality rate is the share of the year's nights falling in July, August and September. In 2025 it was 36.4%, down from 36.6% in 2024, the lowest in INE's series, which starts in 2013. Residents remain more seasonal (40.4%) than non-residents (34.4%). Eurostat's monthly data reproduce INE's resident and non-resident rates exactly, which confirms the definition.
The flattening is visible month by month. Against 2019, nights in 2025 were up 20.3% in January, 23.0% in February, 21.0% in October and 23.1% in November. August was up 6.8% and fell 0.1% on 2024. The ratio of August nights to January nights dropped from 3.62 in 2019 to 3.21 in 2025, and the November-to-March share of the year's nights rose from 25.7% to 27.0%.
Two caveats apply. Part of the change is August hitting capacity and price ceilings: when the peak cannot grow, any growth elsewhere lowers the seasonality rate. And regional patterns diverge sharply. The Alentejo's rate is 43.6% and Península de Setúbal's 41.4%; Grande Lisboa's is 30.3% and Madeira's 29.7%. The Algarve's busiest month still sells more than five times the nights of its quietest.
Supply: more hotels, fewer small lodgings
INE counted 8,778 establishments and 703,886 bed places on 31 July 2025, up 3.2% and 1.6% on 2024 and 22.7% and 9.4% on 2019. Eurostat's capacity series, on a slightly different basis, shows hotel bedrooms up 4.3% to 171,892 while bed places in holiday and short-stay accommodation fell 2.7%. JLL counted 83 hotel openings with 4,080 beds in 2025, about a third of them five-star, and 70 hotels with 7,520 beds under construction to 2028, 60% upscale or luxury and half in the Lisbon area.
The alojamento local register is shrinking for administrative reasons. Municipal clean-ups after the 2024 insurance rule cut national registrations from about 126,000 to about 119,000 by April 2026, according to the owners' association ALEP, which projects about 90,000 once the process ends. These are association figures; no dated official extract of the national register has been published. Lisbon alone cancelled 6,765 registrations in February 2026.
Accommodation and food services employed 338,700 people in 2025 on Eurostat's Labour Force Survey, up 5.3% on 2019 but down slightly as a share of all employment (6.5% against 6.6%). Capacity has grown, nights have grown faster than beds, and the bed occupancy rate held at 48.2% for a second year.
What tourism is worth to the economy
INE's Tourism Satellite Account (3 August 2026) estimates tourism consumption in Portugal at €49.35 billion in 2025, 16.1% of GDP, down from a peak of 16.3% in 2023. That is a demand figure. It includes spending by residents on domestic trips and the imported share of what tourists buy, so it is not tourism's share of the economy.
The value-added measures are smaller. Tourism's direct gross value added was €21.47 billion in 2025, 8.1% of the economy's GVA. Adding indirect effects through suppliers, INE puts the total contribution at €36.2 billion, 11.8% of GDP. Tourism contributed 0.3 percentage points of the economy's 1.9% real growth in 2025, against 3.6 points in 2022 and 1.2 in 2023. The rebound is over; tourism is now growing at roughly the pace of the economy around it.
The figures quoted most often come from elsewhere. The World Travel & Tourism Council puts Portugal's sector at 21.3% of GDP in 2024 and nearly 23% of jobs. Its model adds induced effects (spending by people whose income depends on tourism) and is not comparable with INE's accounts. INE's latest employment figure is 545,755 full-time-equivalent jobs in 2023, 10.4% of national employment. One job in ten is the official number.
Portugal against southern Europe
On money, Portugal outgrew every large competitor. Its receipts are up 58.8% on 2019, against 47.7% for Spain, 45.2% for Croatia, 36.6% for France, 30.0% for Greece and 28.0% for Italy, all in current euros on Eurostat's balance-of-payments data. On volume in 2025 it was the slowest. Non-resident nights grew 0.6% in Portugal, 0.8% in Croatia, 2.1% in Spain and 2.2% in Greece.
| Country | Receipts 2025 (€M) | vs 2024 | vs 2019 | Receipts % of GDP | Foreign nights vs 2024 | Foreign nights vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 29,119 | +5.0% | +58.8% | 9.4% | +0.6% | +16.3% |
| Spain | 105,145 | +6.9% | +47.7% | 6.2% | +2.1% | +10.0% |
| Greece | 23,627 | +9.4% | +30.0% | 9.5% | +2.2% | +9.2% |
| Croatia | 15,298 | +1.9% | +45.2% | 16.5% | +0.8% | +1.8% |
| France | 77,491 | +9.0% | +36.6% | 2.6% | n/c | n/c |
| Italy | 56,724 | +4.6% | +28.0% | 2.5% | series break | series break |
Portugal's higher price inflation explains part of the receipts lead. Its accommodation prices rose 44.1% between 2019 and 2025 against 35.3% across the EU, and Banco de Portugal's June 2026 Economic Bulletin notes that hotel and restaurant prices have risen faster than in competing destinations. The bank adds that Portugal's share of world tourism exports was flat in 2025, with gains in the US and UK markets offset by losses in the EU. Our UK market report shows British nights falling in Portugal in 2025 while they rose in Spain and Greece.
2026 so far
The slowdown that began in 2025 has continued. INE's flash estimates for January to August 2026 show 57.3 million nights (+1.5%) and total revenue of €5,129.0 million (+5.1%). Eurostat's monthly series, which includes campsites, shows nights up 0.95% over the same months, with residents +2.2% and non-residents +0.35%. August 2026, the peak month, sold 10.9 million nights in tourist accommodation (+1.7%) and €1,058.9 million of revenue (+4.6%).
Banco de Portugal's travel receipts reached €20,961.6 million in January to August (+3.2%), with August alone up 1.9%. VINCI reported 57.3 million passengers at ANA's ten airports in January to September (+2.4%): Lisbon grew 0.7% and fell 0.2% in the third quarter, Porto's third quarter rose 7.1%, and the Azores fell 6.4% after Ryanair's exit.
Banco de Portugal's June bulletin expects tourism to slow after a weak start to the year. The hotel association AHP projected nights +1.7% and revenue +3% for 2026 in its spring survey; 28% of hoteliers expected a weaker summer than 2025. By market, August 2026 brought UK nights +3.4%, Spain +5%, Poland +11.7%, Canada +11.2% and the United States +5.8%, while France fell 7.6%. Named risks are the same as last year's: Lisbon airport capacity, border queues under the EU Entry/Exit System, soft French demand and uncertainty in US travel.
What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts
Travelers. Portugal in 2025 was busier than ever by total volume, but the growth went to the north, Madeira and the off-season. August nights did not grow, and accommodation prices stopped rising in 2025 after a 44% climb since 2019. The best value is in the months that grew fastest: January, February, October and November, when nights are 20–23% above 2019 but still well below summer levels. Porto and Madeira have the airport capacity Lisbon lacks. For routes that spread a trip across regions, see our Portugal itinerary.
Tourism businesses and investors. The 2019–2025 boom was price on top of steady volume. Real RevPAR is barely above 2019 and real ADR is below it, so margins depend on costs, and the minimum wage rose from €600 in 2019 to €870 in 2025. Foreign nights grew 0.6% in 2025 and 0.35% in the first eight months of 2026; hotels gained share from smaller lodgings; the new supply is concentrated in five-star and in Lisbon, the one market without runway headroom. The thresholds that would change this assessment: foreign nights growing above 2% for two consecutive quarters, Lisbon's hourly movement cap rising from 38, or the accommodation HICP turning clearly positive again while ADR holds.
Journalists and analysts. Safe to cite: 89.7M nights in all accommodation (INE, +1.6%); 82.0M in tourist accommodation (+2.1%); 29.9M non-resident tourists (+3.3%); €29.1bn travel receipts (Banco de Portugal, +5.0%); €7,133.2M accommodation revenue (+6.9%); RevPAR €72.4 and ADR €124.5; seasonality 36.4%; tourism GVA 8.1% of GVA and 11.8% of GDP including indirect effects (INE). Do not repeat: "31 million tourists", "33 million tourists", "€7.2bn revenue, +7.2%", "tourism is 20% of GDP", "one job in five", or "World's Leading Destination 2025". The series finding this report adds: since 2019 Portugal's receipts have grown in line with its foreign nights once tourism prices are taken out, so the "value over volume" strategy has so far delivered higher prices and flat real spend per foreign night.
Data & sources
Period covered: Calendar year 2025, with 2010–2024 series and January–September 2026
- INE – Estatísticas do Turismo 2025 · Annual guests, nights, revenue, RevPAR, ADR, capacity, seasonality and non-resident tourist arrivals (released 9 Jul 2026). Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- INE – Estatísticas do Turismo 2023 (mirror) · 2019 and 2023 baselines for revenue, RevPAR, ADR and capacity (Quadro 2). Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Turismo de Portugal – TravelBI, Turismo em Números 2025 · Definitive 2025 tourist-accommodation figures after INE revision; receipts summary. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Eurostat – tour_occ_ninat / tour_occ_arnat · National nights and arrivals 2010–2025 by residence and accommodation type, incl. campsites (updated 12 Oct 2026). Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Eurostat – tour_occ_nin2 and tour_occ_nim · Nights by NUTS II region 2024–2025 and monthly nights 2019–2026. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Eurostat – tour_cap_nat · Establishments, bed places and hotel bedrooms 2019–2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Banco de Portugal via Eurostat – bop_c6_a and bop_its6_det · Travel credits and debits 2010–2025 for Portugal and comparators (vintages 16 Apr and 2 Oct 2026). Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Eurostat – HICP annual and monthly indices (prc_hicp_ainr, prc_hicp_aind) · Restaurants and hotels (CP11), accommodation (CP112) and all-items price indices used to deflate receipts and RevPAR. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- INE – Conta Satélite do Turismo 2023–2025 (via Barlavento) · Tourism consumption, direct GVA, total contribution and employment (released 3 Aug 2026). Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Eurostat – lfsa_egan2 · Employment in accommodation and food services 2019–2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- ECO – Receitas turísticas batem recorde (19 Feb 2026) · Banco de Portugal first release of 2025 receipts, debits and balance. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- ECO – Turismo abrandou em 2025 (9 Jul 2026) · Press reproduction of INE's annual release: 29.9M tourists, market shares, residents' trip spend. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- ECO – INE flash August 2026 (30 Sep 2026) · August 2026 and January–August accommodation results. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- Presstur – Banco de Portugal August 2026 receipts (20 Oct 2026) · January–August 2026 travel receipts and balance. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- JLL Portugal – hotel market release (12 Jun 2026) · 2025 hotel openings, pipeline and hotel-sample KPIs. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- WTTC – Portugal Economic Impact (4 Jul 2025) and World Travel Awards 2025 · Model-based GDP and jobs shares tested in this article; awards results. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
Methodology
This report combines INE's annual Estatísticas do Turismo 2025 (9 July 2026) and its 2023 edition for 2019 baselines; Turismo de Portugal's TravelBI for the definitive 2025 tourist-accommodation series; Eurostat datasets tour_occ_ninat, tour_occ_arnat, tour_occ_nin2, tour_occ_nim, tour_cap_nat, bop_c6_a, bop_its6_det, prc_hicp_ainr, nama_10_gdp and lfsa_egan2; INE's Tourism Satellite Account 2023–2025 via Barlavento, Dinheiro Vivo and Observador; Banco de Portugal releases via ECO, Presstur and AICEP; VINCI Airports traffic releases; JLL, AHP and the WTTC; and port authority data for cruise traffic. INE's website could not be reached directly, so INE figures come from INE PDFs, Eurostat (which republishes INE and Banco de Portugal data) and named press reproductions.
Limitations: (1) INE publishes nights on three bases (all accommodation, tourist accommodation, and with or without campsites) and Eurostat on a fourth; each figure is labelled with its basis and bases are not mixed within a comparison. (2) Regional figures use Eurostat's NUTS 2024 series including campsites, which differs from INE headline regional rates. (3) Receipts are national only; Banco de Portugal does not regionalise them. (4) Real changes use Eurostat HICP indices as deflators, an approximation for tourist prices. (5) No official estimate exists for same-day visitors or for nights in alojamento local of fewer than ten beds. (6) 2026 figures are flash estimates subject to revision.
Claims were tested against the primary or closest-to-primary source and given one of the verdicts shown in the corrections panel. Where a figure was revised, the current vintage is used and the earlier value is named. Derived figures, marked as such, are Portugal Trip Planner arithmetic on cited figures; the calculations are reproducible from the sources listed.
Notes on the data
Gaps: no 2025 INE split of guests, nights or revenue by segment (hotels, alojamento local, rural tourism) was accessible; Eurostat's NACE split (I551/I552/I553) is used as a proxy and does not map one-to-one. No 2025 revenue, RevPAR or ADR by region was retrieved. No national cruise total is published; the 1.86 million passenger movements are a derived sum of Lisbon (705,437, itself derived), Leixões (≈225,000, a December 2025 projection), Madeira (746,257), Azores (157,685) and Portimão (23,996), excluding Setúbal. No official same-day visitor estimate exists. The national alojamento local register counts (≈126,000, ≈119,000, ≈90,000) are ALEP association statements, not a dated RNAL extract. INE TSA employment is available only to 2023.
Contested figures: guests 2025 growth is +2.2% in INE's table and +2.3% in its text. Accommodation revenue was €7.2bn (+7.2%) in the February flash and €7,133.2M (+6.9%) in the definitive series. Receipts were €29.13bn in the first release, €29,131M in the April 2026 Eurostat vintage and €29,119M in October 2026. Capacity is 703,886 (INE) or 734,437 bed places (Eurostat), on different campsite treatments. ADR is €124.5 (INE, all tourist accommodation) or €166 (JLL hotel sample). Spain's 2025 receipts are €2,836M in the current vintage; ECO rounded the first release to €2.9bn.
Failed or flagged claims: "31 million tourists" (Secretary of State, January 2026) against INE's 29.9M; "33/34 million tourists" (guest counts); "€29.4bn, +6.1%" (pre-release estimates); "€7.2bn, +7.2%" (superseded flash); "tourism is 20% of GDP" and "one job in five" (WTTC model, not INE); "€265.1 average spend per tourist" (residents' trips); "World's Leading Destination 2025" (Maldives won); "lowest seasonality ever" (lowest in INE's series from 2013 only).
Derived figures: all real (inflation-adjusted) changes; receipts per non-resident night and per tourist; residents' share of growth (73.0%); regional contributions to growth; 2025-vs-2019 changes not printed by INE; the 2024 non-resident tourist count (≈28.9M, from +3.3%); southern European growth rates and receipts-to-GDP ratios; cruise total; travel surplus share of GDP.
Self-reported or model figures: WTTC GDP and jobs shares; JLL hotel KPIs and openings; AHP survey expectations; ALEP register estimates; World Travel Awards results (voting, not measurement).
Frequently asked questions
How many tourists visited Portugal in 2025?
INE estimates 29.9 million non-resident tourist arrivals in 2025, up 3.3% on 2024 and about 21.5% above 2019. Figures of 33 or 34 million are guest counts, which include Portuguese residents and count a traveller again at each hotel.
How many overnight stays did Portugal record in 2025?
INE counted 89.7 million nights across all registered accommodation (+1.6%) and 82.0 million in tourist accommodation excluding campsites (+2.1%). Eurostat's total including campsites is 89.4 million. Non-residents accounted for about 67% of nights.
How much did tourism earn Portugal in 2025?
Banco de Portugal recorded €29.1 billion of travel receipts in 2025, up 5.0% and a record. Accommodation establishments earned €7.13 billion in revenue (INE). The figures measure different things and should not be added together.
Did Portugal tourism revenue reach €30 billion in 2025?
No. Turismo de Portugal's president said receipts would be slightly under €30bn, estimating €29.4bn in December 2025. Banco de Portugal's figure is €29.1bn (€29,119M in the October 2026 vintage).
What share of Portugal's GDP is tourism?
On INE's Tourism Satellite Account, tourism's direct value added was 8.1% of gross value added in 2025, and 11.8% of GDP including indirect effects. Tourism consumption equalled 16.1% of GDP, a demand measure. The WTTC's 20%-plus figure comes from a model that adds induced effects.
Which Portuguese region grew fastest in 2025?
By added nights, Norte (+602,673, +4.0%) and Madeira (+375,656, +3.9%) led, supplying 72% of national growth (Eurostat, incl. campsites). On INE's basis excluding campsites the Alentejo grew fastest at +6.3%. The Algarve fell 0.2%.
Is Portugal becoming less seasonal?
Yes, slowly. INE's seasonality rate, the share of nights in July to September, fell to 36.4% in 2025, the lowest in its series since 2013. January to March and October to November grew about 20–23% on 2019 while August grew 6.8%.
How is Portugal tourism doing in 2026?
Growth has slowed. January to August 2026 nights rose 1.5% and accommodation revenue 5.1% (INE flash), receipts rose 3.2% (Banco de Portugal), and foreign nights including campsites grew 0.35% (Eurostat). Banco de Portugal expects tourism to slow this year.
What was the average hotel room rate in Portugal in 2025?
INE's average daily rate across tourist accommodation was €124.5 (+3.7%) and RevPAR €72.4 (+4.4%). JLL's higher €166 ADR covers a sample of mainly branded and upscale hotels and is not comparable.