According to INE’S Tourism Statistics 2018, Spain remains the main issuing market for international tourists, with a share of 25.4%.

On the activity of the tourist accommodation sector, INE said that last year the number of guests stood at 25.2 million with 67.7 million nights spent, corresponding to increases of 5.1% and 3.1% respectively, against 2017 figures of 12.9% and 10.8% respectively.

Last year, tourists represented 81% of guests and 83.6% of overnight stays in hotels, followed by local accommodation with 15.6% and 13.8%, respectively.

The document also said that figures for tourism in rural areas last year were up 3.4% and 2.6% in terms of guests and overnight stays.

As for overnight stays in foreign markets (70.6% of the total), they registered a significantly lower growth (+1.8%, after +12.2% in the previous year) and reached 47.8 million.

In 2018, residents in Portugal made 22.1 million tourism trips, which corresponded to a growth of 4.2%, but denotes a slowdown from the 5% increase in 2017 and 5.4% in 2016.