About a third (33.8%) of the resident population in Portugal made at least one tourist trip during the 3rd quarter 2015 (+3.7 p.p. comparing with the 3rd quarter 2014 ). The number of tourist trips ascended to 6.96 million in the 3rd quarter 2015 (+16.2%), of which 9.7% had a foreign destination (8.6% in the 3rd quarter 2014).
Of the total of trips, 58.6% (4.1 million) were made for “Leisure, recreation or holidays” reasons (59.4% in the 3rd quarter 2014) and 33.8% had as main motivation the “visit to relatives or friends” (32.1% in the 3rd quarter 2014).
"Free private accommodation" was the preferred accommodation option in 59.4% of overnight stays (65.7% in the 3rd quarter 2014), while "hotels and similar accommodation” corresponded to 22.4% of overnight stays (17.5%).