In the last four days there has been a massive 723% increase in hotel reservations throughout Portugal – according to On The Beach, one of the largest British beach holiday operators. This is a marked boost to the tourism sector, compared to the days leading up to the UK’s decision to include Portugal in its air bridge list.
Many people took advantage of last-minute offers, with 72% of these bookings being planned for September and October.
A similar situation was reflected in the Algarve’s local accommodation market. According to data from the AirDna platform (which monitors Airbnb reservations): in the past week, compared to the previous week, there was an increase in reservations in the village of Carvoeiro of 47%, in Quarteira of 44.6%, in Albufeira of 42.2% and in Lagos of 19.6%.
José Theotónio, CEO of the Pestana group, says that there has been “about 50% of the demand that there was a year ago this same week”, but that one cannot speak “as a percentage increase because the demand was non-existent” before the air bridge was opened.
The Algarve is, for the hotel group, the most sought after region. Followed by Lisbon, Porto and then Madeira. Eliderico Viegas, of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve, says that “it takes more time to account for the impact of reservations”.
Airline tickets to Faro have risen between 400% and 1250%, according to the Algarve tourism board, with Ryanair announcing an increase in flights between the United Kingdom and Faro this week for the coming months. TAP has also spoken of the “significant demand” for connections between the United Kingdom and Portugal.
