Lisbon, Jan. 28, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's Vila Galé hotels group estimates that its net profit for 2024 swelled to around €105 million, on record-breaking revenues and with data pointing to further growth in 2025.
At a meeting with journalists in Lisbon, group director Gonçalo Rebelo de Almeida stressed that the 2024 accounts have not been finalised, but that "there should be a foreseeable increase in profits" to €105 million or €106 million, against €100 million in 2023.
If that happens, that represents growth of at least 5%.
Rebelo de Almeida also said that the hotel group's revenues in Portugal grew by 9% to €172 million, while those in Brazil reached 682 million reais (€110 million at the current exchange rate). The group's first hotel in Spain, in Isla Canela, recorded revenues of €6 million in 2024, which was its first year of operation, meaning that there is no comparison with other years.
In total, the group thus had €290 million in revenue, he said.
In 2023, the group's total revenue had been €275 million, already up more than 20% on 2022, and representing its best year ever in both Portugal and Brazil, Vila Galé's chairman, Jorge Rebelo de Almeida, announced last year.
The group currently has 45 hotels: 32 in Portugal, one in Spain, 11 in Brazil and one in Cuba.
The average room price in the group's hotels in Portugal rose by 8% last year to €120, excluding value-adde tax and extras, including breakfast.
The room occupancy rate - on an overall 5% increase in the number guests - last year rose 4 percentage points to 55%.
In Brazil, the occupancy rate remained at 53% while the average room price in resorts was around 1,100 reais and in city hotels between 400 and 450 reais," according to Gonçalo Rebelo de Almeida.
He noted that in terms of the group's markets "there have been changes" but said that the main one continues to be Portugal, accounting for between 40% and 45% in 2024, up by around 6 percentage points.
The biggest new development of 2024, the group director stressed, was the number of tourists coming from the US and Canada: up 30% and 25% respectively.
He emphasised that "the big turning point" in visits from German tourists "came in 2024" - for a market that, after weak activity in 2022 and 2023, increased by 23%.
The director said out that the group aims to continue to invest in these markets, particularly the US, which "five or six years ago didn't even appear" in the group's rankings but today is among the fastest growing and "vying for positions in third, fourth or fifth place" in terms of guest numbers.
He stressed that these are tourists who "stay more nights and extend their presence to the whole of Portugal" - including the Douro Valley and the Alentejo region, in both of which the group has several hotels.
The next highest growth was in the UK market, where guest numbers grew by 1.3%, while those from Brazil remained the same.
There were setbacks "within the markets that are relevant" to the group's hotels, with a 5% drop in Spanish tourists and a 10% drop in French tourists, he noted.
For 2025, the group's bookings "point to growth, with the profile and type of client remaining similar to 2024.
"We no longer expect significant growth, but we still expect growth in occupancy rates and revenue,’ he explained.
In terms of human resources, the director pointed out that "this continues to be the big challenge" for the group.
"The biggest cost increase we had was in investment - that's what we prefer to call it - in human resources," he said. "The number of employees has increased with the new hotels, but we're talking about a wage bill growth of over ten percent by 2024."
This increase, he emphasised, exceeded the growth in revenue in Portugal.
Not counting annual hiring due to the seasonal nature of the business - which was between 500 and 600 people - the group has 1,700 workers, 85% of whom are Portuguese, followed by nationals of Brazil and Cabo Verde.
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