In the 3rd quarter of 2021, residents in Portugal made 7.7 million trips, which corresponded to an increase of 21.3% (-11.1% vis-à-vis the 3rd quarter of 2019). In the previous quarter, they had registered a year-on-year rate of change of +83.9%. 

There were 454.8 thousand trips abroad (+180.9% compared to the 3rd quarter 2020; -57.2% when compared to the same period of 2019), corresponding to 5.9% of the total (12.3% in Q3 2019). Domestic trips increased by 17.1% (-4.6% compared to the 3rd quarter of 2019) accounting for 7.3 million trips, which corresponded to 94.1% of the total (-3.4 p.p. vis-à-vis 2020, but +6.4 p.p. compared to the 3rd quarter of 2019). In both cases the recorded values in the 3rd quarter of 2021 were the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. 

“Leisure, recreation, or holidays” remained the main reason for travelling in the 3rd quarter of 2021 (5.4 million trips, +20.9%; -6.2% vis-à-vis the 3rd quarter of 2019), having registered a slight decrease of 0.2 p.p. in terms of representativeness (69.8% of the total). Conversely, the “visit to relatives or friends” strengthened its representativeness (25.0% of the total, +0.6 p.p.), being the second main reason for the trips taken (1.9 million trips, +24.4%; -16.2% compared with the same period of 2019).

“Hotels and similar” accounted for 29.3% of all overnight stays from trips taken in the 3rd quarter of 2021, strengthening their representativeness (+4.3 p.p.). “Free private accommodation” stood as the main choice (56.6% of all overnight stays, -4.4 p.p.).

The Internet was used in the organization process for 25.3% of the trips (+0.6 p.p.), having been used in 65.4% (+4.8 p.p.) of the trips abroad and 22.8% (-1.0 p.p.) of the domestic trips.