According to Publituris, Last year, tourist activity totalled 21,107.16 million euros, an increase of 15.4% compared to 18.3 billion euros in 2019 and that was, until last year, the best year ever for tourism in Portugal, according to data released this Friday, February 17, by Banco de Portugal (BdP).

Although the strong rise and 2022 spent the best year ever for Portugal in terms of tourism revenues, this indicator was still below 22 billion euros, contrary to what had, in January, the Minister of Economy and Sea, António Costa e Silva, who estimated a growth of 20% in tourist revenues from 2019.

Like tourist revenues, which are the expenses of foreign tourists in Portugal, also as imports of tourism, which are dictated by the expenses of Portuguese tourists abroad, recorded an increase expressed last year, totalling 5.5 billion euros, an increase of 8.0% compared to 5.1 billion euros recorded in the accumulated 2019.

An increase in 2022 was also the balance of the travel and tourism item, which totalled 15.5 billion euros, an increase of 18.3% compared to 13.2 billion calculated in 2019.

In the statement accompanying the figures, the BdP highlights the contribution of Travel and Tourism to exports of services and says that "tourists residing in the United Kingdom, France and Spain continued to be responsible for the largest tourist revenues in Portugal", with expenditures of 3.3 billion euros, 2.9 billion euros and 2.4 billion euros, respectively in 2022.


18.6% increase in tourist revenues in December

For the last month of 2022 alone, the BdP data shows that tourist revenues totalled EUR 1,258.51 million, an increase of 18.6% compared to the amount calculated in December 2019, when this indicator stood at EUR 1.6 billion,

Compared to December 2021, the increase is even more significant and reaches 44.0%, as the value of tourism exports increased by close to 385 million euros over the past year.

As regards to tourist imports, the results show a scenario similar to what happened with revenues, since this indicator totalled 467.08 million euros in December 2022, indicating an increase of 16.1% compared to 402.46 million euros in December 2019.

Compared to December 2021, tourism imports also increased sharply, rising 39.1% from a total of €335.83 million in the last month of 2021 to €467.08 million in December 2022.

Additionally, in the balance of the travel and tourism item there was a very positive evolution, since the value of this indicator reached 791.43 million euros in December 2022, which assumes an increase of 20.2% compared to the 658.25 million euros calculated in December of the last year before the pandemic.

Compared to 2021, the balance result of the Travel and Tourism item increased even more favourably, from 537.86 million euros in the last month of 2021 to 791.43 million euros in December 2022, which translates to an increase of 47.1%.