Portuguese rent-a-car companies bought 7,319 new vehicles in March, the industry association, ARAC, said, quoting figures issued by the Portuguese Automobile Association.
ARAC said that the increase in its members’ fleets was “mainly driven by tourism in Portugal”, recalling the record number of tourists who visited the country in 2016 and said the outlook for “2017 is even better.”
“We can see that the number of tourists coming to Portugal doubled between 1987 and 2016, and that there are now more than 12 million a year. Tourism now accounts for the largest part of rent-a-car customers and represents about 60 percent of turnover”, the association said in a statement.