Portuguese tourism returned to the 1990s due to the pandemic

The pandemic of the new coronavirus has caused Portuguese tourism, an important engine of the economy, to return to the levels of the early 1990s. The number of overnight stays in the country fell by 63% to 26 million last year, the Portuguese statistical office said. This was at least since 1993, when the number of overnight stays reached 23.6 million. The number of tourists fell by 61.2% to 10.5 million. The number of overnight stays of foreign tourists last year decreased by 74.9% to 12.3 million and the number of overnight stays of domestic tourists by 35.3% to 13.6 million. Tourism is very important for the Portuguese economy. In the years before the pandemic, it grew sharply. In 2019, its share in gross domestic product (GDP) was 8.7%. In comparison, in 2014 it was only 6%. The number of hotels and boarding houses has doubled to more than 6,800 since 2013. Currently, about half remain closed for the pandemic. Prime Minister António Costa called the situation in Portugal "very bad". In an effort to improve the pandemic situation, Portugal has closed its borders since Sunday (31 January). Entry or departure is prohibited without good reason. In Portugal, a strict lockdown has been in place since 15 January.