According to the 14th Hospitality Atlas, published by Deloitte, Portugal continues to beat tourism records and exceeded 66 million overnight stays in 2018, an increase of 9 million compared to the previous year, with revenues rising by around €500 million, approaching €3 billion.


These figures are justified by the increase in the number of guests in the period under review, which was 24.7 million.


Accompanying this growth was also the number of tourist developments, which, according to the consultant, exceeded 2,000 units for the first time.


Similarly, the total number of rooms reached 144,000, representing an increase of 12 percent compared to 2017.


However, this increase in the supply of rooms caused the average national occupancy rate to decrease slightly compared to 2017, despite the growth in the number of overnight stays.


“The Portuguese market has proven to be very dynamic in terms of investment in hotels, registering an increase of 256 percent in the volume of transactions compared to the previous year,” leader of Deloitte Real Estate, Jorge Marrão, said.


The region with the largest hotel offer is the Algarve, with 45,116 rooms, followed by the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (AML), with 31,108 rooms, and the northern part of the country, which has 22,138 rooms.


AML led in terms of revenue per room, which reached €73.96, ahead of the Algarve (€52.62) and Madeira (€47.43).


According to a survey of the 20 main Portuguese hotel groups and whose analysis is part of the 14th Deloitte’s Hospitality Atlas, the main risks to the Portuguese hotel industry for the next five years are the growth of competing markets and the difficulty in hiring qualified labour.