Tourists from five countries generated 64% of Portuguese tourism revenues in the 1st half of 2016.
The top five key markets are the UK, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands with this group spending record amounts.
The remaining countries showed a decline in spending but no matter, the top five are performing well with the British love affair with Portugal as hot as ever.
The Bank of Portugal recorded spending patterns that showed the top five are spending despite the Sterling exchange rate dampening disposable holiday money for Britons.
Portugal received €3.2 billion from tourists coming from the UK, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands which is an increase of €455 million on the first half of 2015, up an impressive 16.6%.
The growth in revenue from the top five countries’ was led by the British who have managed to spend over €128 million more than last year so far, followed by the Spanish who shelled out €109 million more than before followed by the French, Germans and Dutch.
Spending by tourists from Angola has collapsed by 50% as the country continues to struggle and from Brazil which is down 10%.
All-in-all a sterling performance from the Britsh and the rest of the mature Top 5 tourist markets whose attraction to Portugal, especially the Algarve and Lisbon, is a bright signal in an otherwise gloomy economic landscape.
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Readers' comment (below) prompted algarvedailynews to ask the Bank of Portugal how these sums were arrived at.
The response is from its Director of Communications:
"The information on Portuguese Balance of Payments data, including the Travel item (that includes tourism revenues) is compiled in fully accordance with international methodological guidance, namely the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual – 6th Edition (BPM6) of the International Monetary Fund.
"According to this manual, “travel credits cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from an economy by nonresidents during visits to that economy. Travel debits cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from other economies by residents during visits to these other economies.” Contrarily to other items of the Balance of Payments, Travel includes different type of goods and services, in other words, the value of all products acquired by nonresidents during a trip should be included in this item.
"Further taking into account the statistical requirements upon Euro area countries in particular and upon European Union countries in general, these statistics are reported to ECB and Eurostat, which besides validating single country data, also use this information to compute European aggregates. In a nutshell these European Institutions work for the consistent and homogeneous implementation of international guidance in these statistical fields within Europe.
"In Portugal, the credit side of the Travel item, that is expenditures made by nonresidents that visit Portugal, is calculated combining two major sources of information: data about accommodation that is provided by the national statistical office (INE); and data related to means of payments. With regard to this last component, the Banco de Portugal collects information regarding the use of credit and debit cards of nonresidents in Portugal. This source covers the majority of the spending of those tourists in Portugal. Besides that, to cover some missing information regarding other means of payments, the Banco de Portugal uses information of the report COPE (Comunicação de Operações e Posições com o Exterior), which is a mandatory report from national enterprises to the Banco de Portugal on their monthly operations with nonresidents.
"Furthermore, Banco de Portugal statistical compilation procedures’ are considered to be updated and robust. For instance, the already mentioned, use of payments card data that is considered internationally a good practice, is fully used in Portugal, being still an innovation under development in many other countries. Notwithstanding, Banco de Portugal is attentive to international best practices in order to make their estimation procedures even more robust and efficient."
