While overall tourism figures have shown a slowdown in the Algarve, the latest statistics have revealed that for the first time there were more than 3 million overnight stays in the region during July.

According to figures from the National Institute for Statistics (INE), during July foreign visitors once again helped to boost the regional tourism activity of the Algarve with 2.147 million overnight stays, up by some 0.7 percent compared to 2018. When combining the number of stays by foreign tourists with those of national tourists (856,000) the over all total came to 3.003 million overnight stays in the Algarve during July.

The figures show that the Algarve was responsible for a third of all overnight stays in Portugal over the first seven months of the year, with this then being followed by the Lisbon area where a further 25.5 percent of overnight stays were registered.

In the Algarve, tourism levels were up during the first seven months of the year by 2.7 percent with 11.6 million overnight stays between January and July 2019. The Algarve municipalities that had the highest occupancy levels for this period were found to be Albufeira, Loulé, Portimão and Tavira.

While the levels of tourism growth have slowed, the revenue from tourism has not with the monthly results for July in the Algarve showing an increase in revenue of 6.5 percent, equalling €212.4 million. According to the INE since the start of the year total revenue has increased by 7.6 percent to a total of €644.6 million.

Faro airport, the primary entry point for many foreign visitors to the Algarve, has also seen increases in passenger numbers. During July, the airport handled 1.173 million passengers, an increase of 2.2 percent compared to the previous year. The largest increases in passengers at the airport came from the UK ( up 4.1 percent) and Ireland (up 6.1 percent).

©The Portugal News