Portugal | Annual Review 2025

Statistics Portugal closed the year with the headline that tourism activity continued to slow: arrivals of non-resident tourists, measured for the country as a whole and not for this series, reached 29.9 million, up 3.3% after 9.3% the year before. In tourist accommodation establishments, the definitive results give 32.5 million guests (+2.8%) and 82.0 million overnight stays (+2.1%), below the first reading of 82.1 million and +2.2%.

The calendar shaped the path: Carnival moved from February to March and Easter from March to April, taking overnight stays out of February (-2.5%) and March (-2.9%) and giving them back in April (+8.9%). The year had two movements: a first quarter held back by the calendar and a second that returned the volume, then a summer that decelerated, from +3.9% in July to +1.3% in August and +0.6% in September, and a fourth quarter uneven again, at +2.2% in October, +0.7% in November and +3.0% in December. On the value side, total revenue came to EUR 7,154.4 million (+7.2%) and room revenue to EUR 5,483.9 million (+6.8%), with revenue growth losing pace as the year went on.

The year reads simply for owners and lenders: growth came from the value of each night sold rather than from more nights, and the distance between regions and source markets was wider than the national average suggests. 2026 starts from a base in which the domestic market has already done the work and the external one barely moved.

Resident overnight stays reached 25.1 million, up 5.4%, while non-resident stays came to 57.0 million, up 0.8%. External markets still dominated the total, but domestic demand produced the growth. The United Kingdom remained the leading source market, with 17.7% of non-resident overnight stays, despite a decrease of 1.5%. Germany followed with 11.3% of the total, ahead of the United States (9.6%), Spain (9.1%) and France (7.4%). The largest gains came from Canada (+5.8%) and the United States (+4.9%); the largest losses from France (-7.0%) and Spain (-5.2%). The seasonality rate fell to 36.4%, its lowest since 2013, and was higher among residents (40.4%) than among non-residents (34.4%). Across all accommodation types, non-resident overnight stays accounted for 67.1% of the total, one of the years with the greatest dependence on international markets since 2013.

Every region recorded growth in overnight stays in 2025. The largest increases were in the Alentejo (+6.3%), the Setúbal Peninsula (+4.7%) and the North (+4.5%), followed by Madeira (+4.0%) and the Azores (+2.4%). At the other end came the Algarve (+0.4%), the West and Tagus Valley (+0.8%), Greater Lisbon (+0.9%) and the Centre (+1.7%). The two largest destinations by volume, the Algarve and Greater Lisbon, were among the slowest growing.

Total revenue reached EUR 7,154.4 million (+7.2%) and room revenue EUR 5,483.9 million (+6.8%). The pace was uneven: total revenue rose 13.9% in January, 12.6% in April and 10.0% in July, but only 5.7% in September, 1.6% in November and 6.8% in December. With overnight stays growing 2.1%, the extra revenue came mainly from the value of each stay. Statistics Portugal publishes no annual RevPAR, ADR or net bed occupancy for tourist accommodation establishments, so yield has to be read month by month.