Despite the phenomenal growth of the short-term tourists rental accommodation sector, an additional 65 hotels should open next year in Portugal with over half of them located in Lisbon and Oporto.
The data comes from the Association of Hospitality of Portugal, which estimates that 23 of new hotels will be in the Lisbon metropolitan area and 17 in the Porto area.
These two areas of the country, along with the Algarve, currently have the highest number of tourist overnight stays.
"The growth rate is basically the same as in recent years and the average annual growth rate that we have been signaling for ten years, remains," says Cristina Siza Vieira, AHP's chief executive.
This number of hotels opening next year include some that were meant to open last year, but failed to do so.
"There is a great deal of urban rehabilitation activity associated with Lisbon and Porto, the areas most sought after by investors. These are interesting areas for investment by the hotel industry - a combination of high demand, higher performance and better occupancy rates make them the preferred destinations for new hotels," comments Vieira.
The national hotel industry received almost 20.7 million guests last year, with more than six million staying in the Lisbon area and more than four million in the northern part of the country.
As of September this year, there were more than 16.5 million guests, which should lead to a new tourist revenue record of €17 billion in 2018.
The new hotels that plan to open in 2019 are mainly four and five star offerings.
Cristina Siza Vieira explained that in Lisbon, two dozen hotels, with a capacity of around 1,660 rooms, will open and in Porto, a dozen hotels with a total of 960 rooms.
Whether the increasing number of tourists will fill these rooms remains to be seen as the growth in Alojamento Local, short-term tourist rentals, both legal and illegal, already is taking large bites out of the hotel sector's posterior.
