The ‘holiday madness’ that August in the Algarve is known for has only slightly slowed down with the region still recording high tourist numbers.
SIC TV reports that hotel rooms in the Algarve are over 80% booked in September, a month that is becoming ever more popular with holidaymakers seeking summer weather without the ‘chaos’ associated with August.
“Our forecasts for this month are very good,” Jorge Beldade, regional director of Minor Hotels which owns the Tivoli hotels, told the Resident.
“Our revenue is 15% up on last year, which indicates that our occupation levels will certainly be better than in 2016,” he said.
Beldade added that it is “hard to grow much more” in the summer months as 90% of hotel’s rooms are already booked.
Most guests at the Tivoli hotels are from the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Benelux, though there are also a considerable number of French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Another market that has “grown significantly is the Brazilian”, he added.
At the Conrad Algarve hotel in Quinta do Lago, the tendency has also been one of growth.
Though numbers were not revealed, a hotel spokesperson told us that more tourists are visiting the Algarve not only in the summer months, but from May to October, with Portuguese, British and American holidaymakers among the main guests.
Finally, Porfírio Perdigão from the Vila Galé hotel group told SIC that the number of tourists staying at the chain’s hotels in September is growing, particularly the French and Portuguese. There has also been a boost in the number of English guests, most of whom travel to the Algarve to play golf.
August filled to the brim but with fewer Brits
Meantime, new statistics have shown that August was just as busy as ever at Algarve hotels, but with fewer Brits.
In fact, the number of British tourists staying at regional hotels dropped a surprising 16.1% compared to August 2016.
Hotelier association AHETA blamed it on the 15% devaluation of the pound, adding that the gap left by British holidaymakers was compensated by more Portuguese (+10%) and German tourists (4.6%).
There were also more Polish, French, Swedish, Belgian, Danish and Italian holidaymakers staying at local hotels.
Taking it all into account, 93.9% of rooms were booked last month – the same percentage as last year.
Further data shows that the biggest increases in hotel occupancy were registered in Faro/Olhão (+4.1%) and in Carvoeiro/Armação de Pêra (+2.3%).
Albufeira, considered the region’s main tourist hotspot, also saw a 1.7% boost.
The largest drop was in Vilamoura/Quarteira/Quinta do Lago which showed a 3.1% decrease.
AHETA adds that occupancy levels have increased 2.2% since the start of the year, with business volume also up 9.1%.
