According to data on resident tourist demand, published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), between July and September last year, residents in Portugal took eight million trips, which corresponded to an increase of 0.7%, which compares with growth of 6.1% in the previous quarter.
In the period under analysis, trips within the national territory totalled 6.8 million (-3.1%), representing 85.2% of total trips.
Trips to abroad represented 14.8% of the total, totalling 1.2 million (+30.3%).
According to the statistical entity, the main motivation for traveling, between July and September, was “leisure, recreation or vacation”, accounting for around two thirds of total resident trips (66.6%, -0.1 percentage points compared to the same quarter of 2022) and totalling 5.3 million (+0.6%).
The second main reason was “visiting family or friends”, which led to 2.1 million trips (25.7% of the total, -0.9 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2022).
Free accommodation
Hotels and similar accounted for 24.2% of overnight stays resulting from residents’ tourist trips, while free private accommodation was the main accommodation option (55.4% of overnight stays; 55% in the third quarter of 2022).
The internet was the means used to organize trips in 28.5% of cases (-0.5 percentage points), with this resource being an option in 63.8% (-1.8 percentage points) of trips abroad and in 22.4% of trips within the national territory (-1.8 percentage points).