For the first time in the Tivoli Hotels’ history the number of British guests has exceeded that of any other nationality.
Tivoli Hotels Portugal traditionally has been the preferred choice of Portuguese visitors but these now have been knocked into second place by the British, according to Alexandre Solleiro, the president of Tivoli Hotels & Resorts.
Solleiro explained that tourists from the United Kingdom grew by 13% last year compared to 2012. With this growth the British occupied 22% of total rooms at Tivoli Hotels Portugal, taking over from the Portuguese whose numbers are 28% down year on year.
Given the economic situation the downward trend of Portuguese tourists has been increasingly apparent for some years across the hotels owned by the Luxembourg-based company Rio Forte Investments which owns the Tivoli brand and ultimately is controlled by Espírito Santo Group.
In the Algarve the group operates the Tivoli Lagos, the Tivoli Carvoeiro and the Tivoli Marina Vilamoura.
The news that the Brits have removed the Portuguese from the number one slot at Tivoli Hotels will not please Desiderio Silva who, as head of the Algarve's tourism board, has pinned much hope and promotional expenditure on reactivating the moribund internal tourism market by encouraging nationals to holiday in the Algave region.