Angra do Heroismo, Portugal, Sept. 30, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's Azores region recorded, for the eleventh consecutive month, a fall in the number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation in August, with a 2.6% drop compared with the same period last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Regional Statistics Service (SREA).
«In August, tourist accommodation establishments in the Azores as a whole (hotels, short-term rentals and rural tourism) recorded 695,300 overnight stays, a figure 2.6% lower than that recorded in the same month last year,» states the SREA's Tourism Activity Report.
For 11 consecutive months, the number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation in the region has fallen compared with the same period last year.
The figures for 2025 are now final, whilst the results for January to July are provisional and those for August are preliminary, according to the SREA report.
In the first eight months of the year, the Azores recorded 3.2 million overnight stays in tourist accommodation (-3.1%) and 951,700 guests (-3.4%).
In August, the region recorded 190,900 guests (down 4.9%), with an average stay of 3.64 nights (up 2.4%).
The year-on-year decline in overnight stays in the archipelago runs counter to the trend observed at national level, as the country saw growth of 1.7% on average in August and 1.5% between January and August, according to the SREA report.
Of the more than 695,000 overnight stays recorded in August in the Azores, 82% were by foreign tourists, totalling 570,300 overnight stays, albeit with a year-on-year decline of 1.8%.
The domestic market accounted for just 18%, with 125,000 overnight stays, and recorded a sharper decline (6.1%) compared with August 2025.
Among overseas markets, Spain was the largest source market in August, with 90,900 overnight stays (15.9% of overnight stays by foreign residents).
In second place, with 83,200 overnight stays (14.6%), was Germany, which recorded a 2% increase compared with August 2025, and in third place was the United States, with 82,100 overnight stays (14.4%) and a 19% increase.
The Spanish market, however, was one of those recording the sharpest declines compared with the same period last year, at -21.4%, surpassed only by Brazil (-26.4%). The United Kingdom also saw a significant decrease (-16.8%).
Conversely, the markets of Canada (+68.4%), Israel (+39.4%) and Ukraine (+31%) saw the strongest growth.
With 338,800 overnight stays, short-term rental accommodation accounted for 48.7% of tourist overnight stays in the archipelago in August, surpassing the hotel sector, which recorded 320,500 overnight stays (46.1%). Rural tourism stood at 36,000 overnight stays (5.2%).
For the fourth consecutive month, the hotel sector was the only category to show year-on-year growth in overnight stays in the Azores, albeit slight (0.7 %).
Conversely, rural tourism recorded a fall of 9.8 % and short-term rental accommodation a fall of 4.8 %.
Considering only hotels and short-term rental accommodation – which accounted for 94.8% of overnight stays in the region in August – only the islands of Flores and Faial bucked the regional trend, posting year-on-year growth of 6.7% and 0.4%, respectively.
The island of Corvo recorded the sharpest decline (-21.9%), in August, followed by the islands of Graciosa (-6.7%), Terceira (-4.4%), São Miguel (-2.5%), Santa Maria (-1.9%), Pico (-1.1%) and São Jorge (-0.5%).
With 423,400 overnight stays, the island of São Miguel, the largest in the archipelago, accounted for more than half (64.2 %) of overnight stays in hotels and short-term rental accommodation in the region in August, followed by the islands of Terceira, with 85,900 overnight stays (13%), Pico, with 56,300 overnight stays (8.5%), and Faial, with 43,300 overnight stays (6.6%).
The domestic market accounted for the largest share of overnight stays only on the island of Graciosa (66.8%).
Among the international markets, the Spanish market accounted for the largest share on the islands of Flores (21.8%), São Miguel (16.4%) and Corvo (10.5%), whilst the German market stood out on the islands of Pico (18.9%), Faial (15.8%) and Santa Maria (8.5%).
On São Jorge (15.2%), the predominant overseas market was the French market, whilst on the islands of Terceira (12.3%) and Graciosa (10.4%), it was the US market.
In the hotel sector, the net occupancy rate per bed in August reached 76.3%, a figure similar to that recorded in the same month last year, while total revenue rose by 4.5% to €37 million.
Rural tourism, meanwhile, recorded a net occupancy rate per bed of 58.9% (down 5.3 percentage points), whilst total revenue fell by 3.9% to €4.2 million.
For short-term rental accommodation, no revenue figures are provided, but the gross bed occupancy rate stood at 50.9% (down 2.7 percentage points).
According to the report, 11.3% of active short-term rental accommodation establishments reported that they had no guest arrivals in August (1.6 percentage points more than in the same period last year).
CYB/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
