The Algarve’s hotels banked over €25 million in February, thanks to an increasing number of Portuguese tourists heading south.The region’s hotels recorded around 700,000 overnight stays in the month, according to data from the National Statistics Institute.
The number of guests was the same as last year but the number of Portuguese visitors to the region grew 14.6% and the averrage length of visit increased.
The sharp rise in overnight stays by Portuguese tourists boosted hotel revenue by 7.4% to €25.6 million, a healthy increase on January’s figure of €17.5 million.
Unlike the rest of the country where length of stay is static, the average stay in the Algarve increased by 2.6% to 4.52 nights, now the second highest in the country.
The Algarve captured 23.7% of the total overnight stays in Portugal with some nationalities on the increase, such as Germany (+7.6%), France (+27.4%) and Ireland (+13.9%) and others waning, such as the United Kingdom (-3.3%), Spain (-13.1%) and the Netherlands (-11.8%).
Hotel revenues year-to-date are up 6.7% with many hotel managements still complaining they can’t attract the staff necessary to cater for the rise in demand over the summer season. The answer lies in their tills as national minimum wage earners can scarce afford to live in the region, especially if they have rent to pay.
The number of strikes by workers indicates that many hotel managements are continuing on an ‘austerity’ footing and keeping wages to the minimum, despite the lean years having passed and money flowing into the sector.
