An all-time high number of visitors from the United States travelled to Portugal in September, surpassing 204,000.

According to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), this is a record-high number of North American tourists visiting Portugal. 

The number of visitors from the United States to Portugal in September exceeded those from France and Germany and only trailed the U.K. with 262,000 visitors and Spain with 213,000, The Portugal News reports. 

Furthermore, during the first nine months of the year, Portugal welcomed over 1.1 million visitors from North America, some 200,000 more than between January and September 2019. The North American market represented a 10% share of tourism in Portugal and accounted for 2.6 million overnight stays out of 38.8 million within the year. 

"The focus that Turismo de Portugal has made in the North American market has yielded immense results, without any doubt. The Americans discovered us and discovered us with great force", said the executive vice-president of the Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal (AHP) during an interview with D.N./Dinheiro Vivo. 

The number of North American tourists to Portugal started to increase before the onset of the pandemic. In 2019, this market rose 52% compared to 2017, with a total of 2.7 million people staying overnight on Portugal's mainland and islands. 

Data from Turismo de Portugal – available until August – shows that Lisbon is the top destination for tourists from North America. A total of 1.1 million overnight stays were registered in the region during the first eight months of the year. Behind Lisbon is the North region, with 393,000 overnight stays, followed by the Algarve in third place with 258,000 overnight stays from U.S. visitors.