Almost 9 in 10 Portuguese holidayed in Portugal in 2013
A recent study has found that 86% of Portuguese opted to spend their holidays in Portugal in 2013, in places not that far from where they live.
The percentage for last year was 83%, so there’s a clear upward trend there, many families choosing to rent holiday homes from private owners which reflect better value than traveling to a foreign country because overall cost was seen as the main factor in the holiday destination decision making.
As one might expect, the most popular destination for Portuguese tourists was the Algarve region, which hosted a solid 69% of the country’s internal holidaymakers.
The Beira Litoral and Minho regions saw large growths in demand of 72% and 45% respectively.
The overall tourist figures were boosted by the availability of cheap flights towards well-known destinations in the Algarve such as Faro, Lisbon and Oporto. The numbers were also helped by the the fact that the prices in the Algarve where less than if the equivalent purchases would’ve been made in northern Europe for instance. This might’ve also been a consideration behind the growth of Spanish and French visitors.
Portugal proved to be the fourth most popular country in Europe as far as people searching for places to rent, this representing 11% of the total number.
Another interesting data point that the study revealed was that the Portuguese holidaymakers are big believers in the idea of last minute booking, with 52% of Portuguese tourists who booked in July and August traveling in those same months.
As we mentioned earlier, renting private homes for vacations is becoming increasingly popular, the current economic climate making it a much more cost-effective way of ensuring accommodation during a holiday stay.
These numbers coordinate with those coming from various Algarve sources which has seen an increase in foreign visitors as well.
