TBM Staff - Mumbai The number of foreign tourists visiting Portugal rose 7.5% between January and June, making it the best first half ever and paving the way for another record year, official data showed on Wednesday.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) said more than 8.8 million foreigners stayed in Portuguese hotels in the period, adding that in June alone, nearly 2 million guests entered the country, which was also a record, up 6.9% from a year earlier.
Tourism has been a key driver of Portugal’s economy and last year foreign tourism to Portugal reached a record of more than 18 million guests.
All tourism-linked consumption, at EUR 43.7 billion (48.2 billion), accounted for 16.5% of last year’s gross domestic product, generating about half of the 2.3% economic growth, INE data showed earlier this month.
Using that metric, Portugal’s reliance on tourism has been one of the highest in the continental European Union and second after Iceland, INE data showed.
In the first half of 2023, visitors from Britain represented the largest share of total arrivals, closely followed by the United States, which has been growing as a source of tourism to the country, with more than a million guests each. Neighbouring Spaniards accounted for the third-largest share of arrivals.
The INE said the hotel sector registered more than 14 million guests, including local travellers, while total hotel revenues increased 12.3% year-on-year to 2.8 billion euros.
In a separate report, INE said the number of passengers who travelled through Portuguese airports in June rose 5.6% to 6.7 million compared with the previous year. (Source: Reuters)
