Portugal booked over $17 billion in tourism revenue last year, according to data from the World Tourism Organisation which shows the country overtook Greece ($14.6 billion) for the first time.
In the first half 2018, tourism revenues in Portugal is close to €7 billion, an increase of almost 14% compared to the same period of last year, according to data released in August by the Bank of Portugal which it puts down to, ‘an increase in prices.’
According to WTO, Portugal had a market share of 3.3% in European tourism in 2017 and also achieved one of the highest growth rates in revenues at 22%, surpassed only by Iceland (26.3%), Georgia (27%), Moldova (28.4%) and Romania (45.4%).
The southern Europe table is dominated by Spain, registering $68 billion in revenues last year, ahead of Italy ($44 billion) and Turkey ($22 billion).
Portugal saw 18.2 million arrive in the country in 2016 - the most recent data provided by the World Tourism Organisation – dwarfed by Spain’s 75.3 million in 2016 and 81.8 million last year compared to Portugal’s total.
