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.

The new, reduced, charges will apply to all users, with transport companies benefitting from an extra ten percent reduction during the day and a twenty-five percent reduction during night time.

The roads that are covered by the new tolls are the A17 and A29 – Silver Coast, the A4, A41 and A42 – Greater Porto, the A28 – Norte Litoral, the A22 – Algarve, the A23 – Beira Interior, the A24 – Interior Norte and the A25 – Beira Litoral/Alta.

The former toll regime, allowed local residents and workers to benefit from ten free trips each month, however that was deemed illegal by the virtue of it being discriminatory by the European Commission, so the Government had to abandon it. That opinion was also echoed by the several major figures of the Algarve tourist market.

Going back to the European Commission decision, it argued that the old system of tolls was in violation of the right of free movement of people as well as the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of residence.

The updated regime is in accordance with EU legislation and in a statement from the Portuguese Minister of Economy, he said that the new regime won’t impact the State Budget and that it also respects the government’s user-payer principle for all the motorways in the country.

But the general feeling in the Algarve business sector on the whole isn’t as calm as the Minister’s conclusion sounds, instead they are expecting more bankruptcies, higher unemployment rates, less tourists from Spain, decreases in the Algarve car rental industry numbers and a more congested EN125 if the tolls remain active.

New protests are against the Algarve tolls are scheduled to take place in the near future.