The optimism for future tourism is increasing in the country, and especially in the Algarve seeing as how a large percentage of the increased tourism is in the region.

There’s a 20% growth in occupancy levels for hotels and resorts – overall – with foreign bookings increasing through the biggest tour operators.

Many tourist establishments in the Algarve have reported successful occupancy rates, some establishments predicting that 90% of their accommodations will be booked throughout the summer, while most of them confirming a positive trend in their bookings.

The Quinta do Lago golf resort revealed that it has an occupancy rate for rental villas and town homes of around 85% at the present time and that the increase in golf rounds has contributed to this higher traffic. They also added that a lot of the business was in the peak months of July and August and it was made mostly of last-minute bookings.

Desiderio Silva – president of the Algarve Tourism Board and an official who we often-times talk about here – stressed that the tourism boost to the region is thanks to the divergence of clients from the Arabian tourist destinations, who now choose European alternatives.

The occupancy rate per room reported by AHETA – the Association of Hotels and Resorts of the Algarve – was 81.6% which means a 3.7% increase from the same month in 2012, however it also showed a rather sharp contrast between foreign and national markets.

There was an important increase in the number of Irish, Dutch and British tourists to the Algarve, their numbers increasing by 29.3%, 21.1% and 17.1%, respectively – those are some serious numbers – while Portuguese and Spanish visitors decreased by almost 10%, most likely an indication of the difficult economic times that the Iberian Peninsula citizens are facing.