Portugal’s National Institute of Statistics and the region’s tourist board agree on one thing, the number of tourists visiting the Algarve this year has been record-breaking with a September figure of 2.3 million overnight stays boosting the year’s total.
The September increase is up 2.3% in terms of the number of nights spent in the region but tourists are spending more, or being charged more, with receipts up over 10% on last year as hotels took in €138 million.
In cumulative terms, the number of overnight stays in the first nine months of the year already exceeds 16 million and the region has earned €898 million as a result.
The effects of Brexit have not been felt, with guests from the UK up 2.8% since the beginning of the year but easing off in the third quarter with the Germans picking up the slack, up 7.7% this year so far.
"The Algarve's tourism activity continues to stand out in the national panorama. If we look back, we see a gradual increase in the main indicators of tourism activity, evidence of a sustainable growth of tourism in the Algarve and a progressive blurring of the seasonality of the destination, "explains the president of the Algarve Tourism Region, Desidério Silva whose frequent use of the word ‘sustainable’ has become legendary in newsrooms across the region.
For Ana Mendes Godinho, Secretary of State for Tourism, these are "figures that show that the work done by everyone on the ground in extending tourism to the whole territory is bearing fruit".
"In the first nine months of 2017, revenues amounted to €2.7 billion, an increase of 16.1% over the same period of 2016. When compared to 2015, this growth reaches 35%.”
"For the growth of tourism to be sustainable, it is essential to extend the activity throughout the year, structuring tourism supply and creating attractiveness, which is happening. We are able to extend the activity throughout the year and the territory," concluded Godinho.