Residents' Tourist Trips Fall 1.5 Percent in the Second Quarter, the First Drop in Two Years, as Domestic Travel Shrinks 3.8 Percent

Residents of Portugal took fewer tourist trips in the second quarter of 2026 than a year earlier, the first fall in two years. The Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE, Statistics Portugal) said on Wednesday that residents made 5.9 million trips between April and June, 1.5 percent fewer than in the same quarter of 2025, after a 7.0 percent rise in the first quarter. It is the first drop since the second quarter of 2024, according to INE's release on the tourism demand of residents.

The fall came from travel inside the country. Domestic trips dropped 3.8 percent to 4.8 million, or 81.8 percent of the total, having grown 3.4 percent in the first quarter. Trips abroad kept rising, up 10.0 percent to 1.1 million (18.2 percent of the total), although that is well below the 30.0 percent jump recorded for January to March.

Trips fell 3.4 percent in April and 5.0 percent in June but rose 5.5 percent in May. On INE's monthly table, residents still made 11.4 million trips in the first half of the year, about 2.4 percent more than in the first half of 2025.

Why people travelled

Leisure, recreation or holidays remained the main reason, at 2.9 million trips (49.9 percent of the total), although their number fell 1.3 percent. Visits to relatives or friends accounted for 2.1 million trips (36.2 percent), down 2.4 percent. The only motive that grew was work: professional or business trips rose 11.9 percent to 526,300, or 8.9 percent of all trips.

The motives differ sharply by destination. Leisure drove 68.2 percent of trips abroad (732,000 trips) but 45.8 percent of domestic ones, where visits to family and friends made up 41.4 percent.

Where they stayed and how they planned

Free private accommodation, meaning a second home or a bed offered free by relatives or friends, was again the most common lodging, with 10.1 million overnight stays, 53.0 percent of the total. On trips to see family or friends it covered 92.0 percent of nights. Hotels and similar establishments took 6.4 million nights (34.0 percent) and were the main choice on leisure and business trips.

The internet was used to organise 32.3 percent of trips, up 2.2 percentage points, and 69.9 percent of trips abroad, against 23.9 percent of domestic ones. Services were booked in advance for 45.2 percent of trips: 94.7 percent of foreign trips but only 34.1 percent of trips within Portugal.

Trips also got slightly shorter, averaging 3.22 nights against 3.35 in the second quarter of 2025. The share of residents who made at least one tourist trip held at 25.6 percent, unchanged on a year earlier.

What the figures say about how residents travel

A typical domestic trip is short, mostly arranged without the internet and often spent in a family home or a second residence rather than a paid bed. Travel abroad is booked ahead, mainly for holidays, and is still growing. The share of residents who took at least one trip did not change, so the fall in this quarter came in the number of domestic trips rather than in the share of people travelling.

The quarter follows a record 2025, when residents took about 26 million trips, and foreign travel keeps up the rise traced in our report on trips abroad spreading outside the summer. Only a quarter of residents travelled at all in the quarter, and Eurostat survey data suggest that one in three cannot afford a week's holiday.

INE's 2026 figures are provisional. The third-quarter release, covering the summer peak, is due on 28 January 2027.