The figures reveal that there has been marked an increase of 72.5% and 74.5% more specifically, in comparison to the figures of the same period last year, while the external markets totalled 2.3 million overnight stays, doubling the total number of overnight stays in January 2022, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

According to INE’s statistics, the total number of visitors and overnight stays also saw a significant surge of 3.2% as well as 6.5% compared to January 2020 data.

“In January all the seventeen main issuing markets registered increases in January, having represented 83.8% of overnight stays from non-residents,” INE said.

Regarding external markets, Britons accounted for the most significant increase recorded in the first month of this year, accounting for 14.8% of total overnight stays from non-residents, followed by German (11.3%) and Spanish (10.2%) markets.

At the same time, a decrease compared to January 2020, was noted in overnight stays from visitors from the following countries:

• Britain (3.2% decrease)
• Sweden (19.6%)
• Brazil (15.4%)
• Denmark (15.1%)

INE data shows that the biggest surge “was observed in the North American (53.1%), Polish (65.4%) and Irish (48.1%) markets, having also increased in the number of German (9.9%) and Spanish guests (11.4%)”.

A surge was also experienced in all regions, with AM Lisboa accounting for 32.6% of all overnight stays followed by the North (17.6%) RA Madeira (17.0%) and the Algarve (16.3%)

In comparison to 2020 figures, the INE statistics reveal that there was also noted an increase in all areas, especially in Madeira (20.9%), Centre (6.2%) and North (5.3%).

In the first month of this year, there was noted an increase in all segments of accommodation, with overnight stays in hotels accounting for 81.9 per cent of the total, or a 77.1% increase compared to the same month in 2022 data and 2.7% in comparison to January 2020.

Overnight stays in Local Accommodation, whose share stood at 15.6%, increased 71.2% compared to January last year as well as 25.3% in comparison to January 2020, while the number of overnight stays in tourism in rural, as well as housing spaces which accounted for a share of 2.5%, increased 28.1% in comparison to January 2022, as well as 45.8% compared to the data of January 2020.