Évora, Portugal, Feb. 18, 2025 (Lusa) - The Alentejo region recorded "the best tourism year ever" in 2024, with an increase in the number of overnight stays and income, the president of the Regional Tourism Authority (ERT) said on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, the president of ERT do Alentejo e Ribatejo, José Manuel Santos, emphasised that the Alentejo region exceeded "3.2 million overnight stays" for the first time in 2024, with "130,000 more overnight stays" than the previous year.
"It was a year in which we grew by more than 4% [in the number of overnight stays], above the national average, in sustained growth," because “we can't always grow in double digits, as happened in 2023,” he said.
José Manuel Santos discussed the preliminary results of tourism activity for 2024, which Statistics Portugal (INE) released last week.
The leader of the ERT noted that Alentejo achieved "a slightly higher growth in external demand" compared to internal demand, emphasising that it was the region in mainland Portugal that "grew the most in revenue, with a 12% increase".
"Alentejo is increasingly a destination that sells itself to more people at a higher price," he stressed, recognising that the results are “the fruit of the work, first and foremost, of entrepreneurs, hotels, rural tourism, entertainment and restaurants”.
As for foreign markets, he emphasised the growth of North American tourists in the region, "above the national average", expressing concern about the Spanish market, which has lost ground.
"The recovery of the Spanish market is one of the major planks in our programme for the presidency of the Alentejo Regional Tourism Promotion Agency (ARPTA)," stressed José Manuel Santos, a candidate for this agency in the elections on 31 March.
According to the president of ERT do Alentejo e Ribatejo, the Alentejo region also achieved good results last year in terms of average revenue per available room (RevPAR), with a growth of 7.9%, which is in line with the country's average.
"It was a very good tourist year, which also opens up good prospects for this year, which we are already working hard on," said José Manuel Santos, acknowledging that “there is still room for the region to grow” in this area.
Asserting that tourism in Alentejo "to grow in demand, it also has to grow in supply", he revealed that new hotels are due to open this year, as well as the expansion of some existing ones.
"With all the dynamics that the destination will have in 2025, starting with the fact that we're the Guest Destination at the Lisbon Travel Market (BTL), we believe it will also be a good year and one in which we'll be able to reinforce these 2024 figures," he added.
Nationally, the tourist accommodation sector is expected to record 31.6 million guests and 80.3 million overnight stays in 2024, up 5.2% and 4.0% compared with 2023, increasing total revenue by 10.9% to 6.7 billion euros, according to INE.
SM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
