Foreign tourism to Portugal hits new record at summer season’s peak
LISBON (Reuters) – The number of foreign tourists visiting Portugal rose 5.3% to a monthly record of 2.3 million in August, making it the busiest summer season on record for arrivals, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Monday.
Tourists from neighbouring Spain represented the largest share of total arrivals, followed by visitors from France, Britain and the United States.
In the first eight months of 2024, arrivals rose 6.7% from a year ago to 13.1 million.
Tourism has been a key driver of Portugal’s economy and last year the number of foreign visitors to Portugal reached a record of more than 18 million guests.
However, the tourism boom has also led to a surge in short-term holiday lets, exacerbating a squeeze on the housing market that has led to protests in Lisbon and other cities by locals struggling to afford a place to live.
All tourism-linked consumption, at almost 44 billion euros ($48 billion), accounted for 16.5% of last year’s gross domestic product, generating about half of the 2.3% economic growth, INE data showed earlier this month.
