The provisional figures for last year’s tourist income gave rise to great hopes that the final results would be record beaters – they are.
The National Statistics Institute has issued confirmation that in addition to the airport being close to capacity and rounds of golf played at a new high, the vital hotel sector registered a new high in 2015.
"It was a positive year for the hotel industry and for tourism in the Algarve, which was observed following the a record year in 2014. The Algarve remains the main tourist area of the country with more than a third of all overnight stays in Portugal. These very encouraging results also are a consequence of the growing involvement of private partners with the Algarve Tourist Board (RTA), the Algarve Tourism Association and the region’s councils."
Thus spake the president of the Algarve Tourist Board, Desidério Silva.
The Algarve’s hotels catered for 3.7 million guests (up 3.9%) enjoying 16.6 million overnight stays (up 2.7%).
The growth of tourism in the Algarve was driven by foreigners, with British tourists leading the pack with 5.5 million overnight stays, up 5.8% from 300,000 overnight stays more than in 2014.
By contrast, overnight stays by Portuguese tourists fell 3.1%, to 3.8 million.
The hotels took more money too, with revenue up by over 10% representing a total take of €758 million.
Golfers shrugged off the 23% VAT rate and played 1.2 million rounds last year, the best year since the heady days of 2007.
According to airport operator ANA, in 2015 Faro set a new annual maximum up 4.4% to 6.4 million passengers handled, 3.5 million of them coming in on flights from the UK.
Next were the Germans with 721,000 passengers (up 4.9%), then the Irish with 588,000 (+7.6%) followed by the Dutch with 564,000 (+3.2%).
Now, the French: the Algarve’s streets, cafes and beaches are filling with French chatter due to a growth in our Gallic friends visiting, up 20.7% in a year with 196,000 landing at Faro airport.
Belgium sent 14.3% more with 150,000 inbound and the number of our Spanish cousins flying in was up 13.9% to 106,000 – many more will have driven here.
What has happened in Switzerland? The number arriving was up an astounding 79% with 92,000 landing in Faro.
The average occupancy rate on flights into Faro was 88% in 2015, an annual increase of 2.6% and an impressive display by the airlines involved that they know how to run their businesses.
Holiday company Tui commented in early February that holidaymakers are opting for destinations which they believe are safe, namely Spain and the Canary Islands, Portugal and Greece.
The German owned giant has stopped offering holidays in Tunisia and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt because of security concerns and continues to review its range of holidays on offer.
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