Tourist accommodation registered 3.1 million guests and 7.7 million overnight stays in May, equivalent to year-on-year increases of 9.4% and 7.5%, with external markets recovering from the April decline, INE announced.

In the quick statistics released today, the National Statistics Institute (INE) records that, in May, both the number of guests and the number of overnight stays recovered from the respective drops of 3.7% and 4.3% in April.

Overnight stays by residents increased by 7.6%, to 1.9 million, while those by non-residents rose by 7.5%, to 5.8 million, recovering from declines of 12.4% and 0.9% in the previous month.

In the statistical data for April, the INE had pointed out that the results for that month “were influenced by the calendar effect of the holiday period associated with Easter, which in the previous year was concentrated only in April, while this year it was spread between March and April”.

The British market was the main issuer in May, with a share of 19.1%, having risen by 2.1%, followed by Germany (weight of 11.8% and which rose by 10.0%) and the United States of America, which overtook France in the share of issuing markets.

In May, the North American market had a weight of 10.1%, a rise of 17.3%, surpassing the French market (share of 9.2%), which was “one of the few, among the main ones, to show a decrease (-1.8%).

All regions showed increases in overnight stays, with Alentejo (+18.0%) and the Autonomous Region of the Azores (+17.6%) standing out, while the Algarve (5.2%), Autonomous Region of Madeira (5.6%), and Greater Lisbon (5.7%) had “the most modest growth”.

Occupancy in tourist accommodation establishments increased in May to 52.4% and 63.7%, respectively, in net bed occupancy and room occupancy rates, equivalent to increases of 1.8 and 1.5 percentage points, respectively.

The average stay in tourist accommodation establishments was 2.47 nights, a year-on-year reduction of 1.7%, after a decline of 0.7% in April.