Portuguese Tourist Lodgings Booked a Record May as Revenue Reached €755 Million
Tourist accommodation took in a record €755.7 million in May, up 5.8%, as INE data show 3.3 million guests and 8 million nights. Portuguese travellers led with a 7.6% rise; the Alentejo and North grew fastest while the UK market slipped.
Portugal's tourist accommodation sector booked another record month in May, with hotels, guesthouses and short-stay rentals taking in €755.7 million — an increase of 5.8% on the same month last year, and fresh evidence that the country's travel boom is cooling only gently, not stalling.
The figures, published by the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE, the National Statistics Institute), show 3.3 million guests staying in tourist lodgings in May, up 3.9% year-on-year, and 8 million overnight stays, a 2.8% rise. Room revenue alone reached €575.1 million, up 4.8%. Revenue is now climbing faster than guest numbers — a sign that room rates, rather than sheer volume, are doing much of the heavy lifting.
Portuguese travellers lead the way
One of the month's clearest trends was the strength of the domestic market. Overnight stays by Portuguese residents rose 7.6% to 2.1 million, comfortably outpacing the 1.1% growth from international visitors, who accounted for 5.9 million nights. After several years in which foreign demand drove almost all the gains, home-grown tourism is once again a meaningful engine.
Regionally, the fastest growth came away from the usual coastal hotspots. The Alentejo led the country with a 10.0% jump in overnight stays, followed by the North at 6.7% — regions that have been actively courting visitors looking for cooler, quieter alternatives to the Algarve and Lisbon in the height of summer.
Shifting source markets
The composition of foreign guests continues to move. The United Kingdom remained the single largest source market, with a 19.0% share of international nights, but its numbers slipped 1.1% — extending a gradual decline that has worried Algarve hoteliers for months. Filling the gap were faster-growing markets: among the ten largest, Brazil and Germany stood out, expanding 9.3% and 8.6% respectively.
The pattern points to a tourism economy that is broadening its base rather than relying on a handful of traditional feeder markets — a healthier position if any one economy wobbles, though also a more competitive one for operators trying to anticipate demand.
A record year in the making
May's numbers cap a strong start to 2026. Across the first five months of the year, accommodation revenue climbed roughly 12% to about €2.1 billion, a new high for the period. That momentum keeps Portugal on course for the government's target of tourism receipts growing between 5% and 5.5% over the full year, with visitor numbers up 2% to 2.5%.
The open question is how long price-led growth can continue before it starts to deter the very visitors that fuel it. For now, higher rates are lifting revenue faster than arrivals — a comfortable equation for the industry, if a costlier one for anyone booking a Portuguese holiday this summer.
