Hotels and accommodation units had 42,000 more overnight stays than in 2022 and broke the record with a total of 446,972 overnight stays in 2023, with the months of August, July and September being the most expressive, but with January being the month of biggest rise.

Visitors who passed through museums, galleries and tourist shops were almost 289 thousand, 70 thousand more than in 2022, an increase of around 32% in 2023.

The Mayor, Ribau Esteves, highlighted the numbers, especially since “Aveiro only started to grow in tourism indicators in 2017”, and attributed part of the success to local accommodation, but said that there is a lack of hotels.

“Aveiro had 30 local accommodation beds 10 years ago and today has 2,500, but traditional hotels play an important role in attracting tourist flows and consolidating stays,” he told Lusa.

With the exception of a recent five-star hotel, new hotels have not opened in the city for several years, despite tourism growth, but there are projects.

A hotel is planned in the Detail Plan of Canal do Paraíso, another in a subdivision next to Canal de São Roque, a third in the old Vitasal factory and another next to Avenida Europa.

For Ribau Esteves, Aveiro also lacks an international hotel chain, because it only has one (Mélia).

Despite the record number of overnight stays, Aveiro continues to fail to retain tourists for long stays, and the objective of an average stay of three nights has not yet been achieved.

Motorhomes

Motorhomes are a segment that has also been growing and a new park next to Aveiro Station is already permanently occupied.

The council redeveloped another park next to the São João bridge and has projects for two more, one in the city area and the other on the Esgueira/Cacia axis.

Regarding camping, the only municipal park is in São Jacinto and is closed for works, with an estimated cost of 1.5 million euros, and should reopen for the summer of 2025.