According to the BdP, compared to 2020, the year in which the Covid-19 pandemic began, the result is more positive and reflects an increase of 28.2%, since in 2020 the accumulated revenues from tourism activity, which correspond to tourist exports and resulting from spending by foreign tourists in Portugal, had reached 7,716.44 million euros.

With regard to tourism imports, which are the result of spending by Portuguese tourists abroad, this indicator reached 3,574.24 million euros in the last year, a value that is 30.2% below that recorded in 2019, when tourist imports were 5,124.00 million euros. Compared to 2020, when imports totalled 2,743.23 million euros, the trend is, however, on the rise, after an increase of 30.3%.

The BdP emphasises that the increase in the surplus in Travel and Tourism contributed to the surplus in the balance of services having increased compared to 2020 and highlights that, last year, “resident tourists in France, the United Kingdom and Spain continued to be responsible for the largest tourist revenue in Portugal”.

With regard only to the month of December, data from the BdP show that there was a recovery in tourist revenues compared to 2020, since the value of 874.39 million euros calculated in December 2021 is 68.9% higher of the 517.56 million euros recorded in December 2020, although there is still a drop of 17.7% compared to December 2019, when tourist revenues reached 1,060.71 million euros.

The BdP data also show that the new Ómicron variant may have harmed Portuguese tourist revenue in the last month of 2021, since there was a decrease of about 2.0% compared to the 892.12 million euros that had been determined in November of last year