In the 1st quarter of 2024, residents in Portugal made a total of 4.5 million trips, corresponding to a decrease of 7.8% (following +2.9% in the 4th quarter of 2023), the first drop since the 2nd quarter of 2021. Domestic trips decreased by 10.0% to a total of 3.9 million (86.6% of the total trips), while trips abroad grew by 9.2%, reaching 599.5 thousand (13.4% of the total). 

The main reason for travelling in the 1st quarter of 2024 was “visit to relatives or friends”, which accounted for around 2.1 million trips made by residents (47.2%; +1.1 p.p.  compared to the 1st quarter of 2023). The second main motivation to travel was “leisure, recreation, or holidays”, which led to 1.7 million trips (37.7% of the total; -1.8 p.p. vis-à-vis the 1st quarter of 2023). 

"Hotels and similar establishments" accounted for 24.0% of overnight stays from residents’ tourism trips in the 1st quarter of 2024, being surpassed by ‘free private accommodation’, which remained the main accommodation option (66.6% of overnight stays), hosting 8.5 million overnight stays.

In the process of organising trips, the internet was used in 25.3% of cases (+3.1 p.p.), with this option having been used in 72.1% (+3.1 p.p.) of trips abroad and 18.1% of domestic trips (+1.8 p.p.).

It should be noted that the results presented in this press release are affected by the moving structure of the calendar, i.e., the effect of the Easter holiday period, which last year was concentrated in April (Q2), whereas in the current year it was spread over March (Q1) and April (Q2).