Despite Brexit uncertainty Algarve had 700,000 British overnight stays in October alone

In October of this year tourists from the United Kingdom contributed around 700,000 overnight stays to the Algarve’s hotel industry, a 4% increase over the same month last year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) has just revealed. This goes against what many have speculated, and signifies that even with Brexit looming and a struggling pound throughout the year, British tourists haven’t been put off visiting the Algarve.

The report shows that the British tourists, a main staple of tourist market for the Algarve region, have accumulated around 5.6 million overnight stays between January and October of this year, 2.3% more than in the same period of ten months last year in 2018.

João Fernandes, president of the Algarve Tourism Board, has said that “these results make us optimistic about the future, notably the recovery that the UK market has been experiencing throughout the year, be it in the hotel industry, or at Faro airport, where British passengers numbers rose by 6.5%”.

“Another positive sign is the recovery of the pound against the euro, which has been taking place since mid-August of this year, and which has been encouraged by the British election” he added.

Adding overnight stays from all rental property markets, not just the hotel industry, Algarvean accommodation recorded a total of 1.9 million overnight stays in October (-0.6% from last year, and accumulated 19.6 million (+ 2.2% on last year) since January.

Regional hotel revenues continued to rise, amounting to 96.6 million euros (+ 1.7%) in October and accumulating 1168.3 million euros (+ 7%) in the first ten months of the year, up from compared to the year 2018 (EUR 1136.6 million).

This is excellent news, as tourism is set to become an increasingly important aspect of the country’s economy over the next few years.

The gross value added (GVA) generated by tourism was €14.09 billion in 2018, which represents 8% of total national GVA, up from 7.7% in 2017, the Statistics Portugal (INE) also said today.