Lisbon, June 10, 2025 (Lusa) - The tourism sector in Portugal believes that the summer will be positive, even anticipating results higher than 2024, but fears that the situation at airports, marked by images of long queues, could pose a threat to activity in the short term.
“Everything points to a summer in line with the growth already recorded in the first four months of this year (8.5% more guests; 9.2% more overnight stays; 12.6% more total revenue),” Cristina Siza Vieira, executive vice-president of AHP - Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal (Portuguese Hotel Association), told Lusa.
“In fact, we predict that 2025 will see results above those of 2024, a forecast supported by the data already collected: all indicators point to continued and consistent growth, with 2025 potentially better than 2024, both in terms of guest numbers and overnight stays and in terms of revenue,” she said.
She also pointed out that forecasts for the summer indicate “a similar distribution to previous years between the domestic and international markets”, and that “despite the growth in domestic tourism, the resident market is expected to account for around 30% of overnight stays, while the international market will continue to dominate, with around 70%”.
Francisco Calheiros, president of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP), also believes in a positive summer.
“We are very positive about this summer. The Easter period was already a good indicator,” he said, pointing out that, according to the national statistics institute (INE) data, in April, “the tourist accommodation sector registered 2.9 million guests and 7.1 million overnight stays, which is equivalent to year-on-year increases of 8.5% and 9.2%, respectively”.
“These are therefore very good indicators for the coming summer,” he said.
However, the situation at airports is worrying association leaders.
“Since mid-May, we have been experiencing a critical situation on the ground at Portuguese airports, which mainly affects Lisbon and Faro,” said Cristina Siza Vieira.
“This critical situation is the biggest threat to operations in the short term (I say ’short’ because we believe it will certainly be resolved shortly), as we know, affecting passengers arriving on flights from countries outside Europe or the Schengen area, which are very important for national tourism, as is the case with the American market,” she warned.
The executive vice-president of the Portuguese Hotel Association recalled that the American market is the second largest “in terms of guests and overnight stays in Portugal and the first for Lisbon (with no forecast of a decrease, even less so this summer, given the strengthening of air links by TAP and American airline companies)”.
For Cristina Siza Vieira, this situation also constitutes a “terrible image at the gateway to Portugal”.
Francisco Calheiros said that “the long queues currently seen mainly at Faro and Lisbon airports, due to failures in the new electronic system responsible for document control, particularly for those arriving from countries outside the European Union, is a very worrying situation, even more so at the start of the summer”.
According to its president, the Portuguese Tourism Confederation has been meeting with the government, “expressing its concern about this serious problem” and has already been “assured that the problem will be resolved very soon”.
The confederation “hopes that this will be the case,” he stressed, given that “the current situation of long queues at airports for document control for those arriving from outside the Schengen area negatively affects the image of a country that wants to assert itself as a competitive, modern and efficient destination.”
ALN/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
