Portugal’s tourism bosses hope for a repeat of the above-expected growth in 2023.

2022 was “the best ever from a revenue point of view”, noted Luís Araújo, head of Portugal Tourism, in Madrid at the opening of FITUR, a major annual international travel event.

The sector generated more than €22 billion, which compares with €18.4 billion in 2019, the last without any impact from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We recovered earlier than we anticipated,” stressed the chairman of the entity responsible for promoting Portugal as a tourist destination.

“What we are forecasting for 2023 is to continue the growth we had in 2022, obviously, with great uncertainties, from the war in Ukraine to inflation. But we believe we are very well positioned. An example of this is this fair, FITUR,” added Luís Araújo, who highlighted that the Spanish market is currently the second largest for Portugal in the number of guests and the fourth in terms of revenue.

The officials said the plans are to “try to diversify even more the core of markets” that are key to Portugal’s critical tourist sector.

“We have managed to regain the routes that we had lost in 2020 and 2021, and we already have indicators very close [to those of previous years]. This year, 2023, we will surpass 2019. It is one of the great anchors for the recovery of the sector,” said the chair of Portugal Tourism.

Portugal’s tourism sector represented around 15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) before the pandemic. Yet, the total number of international visitors in the last seven months of 2022 was 8.1 million.

Portugal has welcomed the largest share of total tourists from Spain, with 285,900, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States.