More than 1.8 million tourists stayed in accommodation spots across Portugal last month, with this number being slightly higher than the pre-pandemic levels.

According to the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE), the number of visitors in July was 600,000 more than in the previous year when Covid-19 restrictions and limitations were still in place.

In addition, the number of arrivals in July was slightly more than 1.78 million recorded in July of 2019, which was a record year for tourism. The country’s tourism sector represented almost 15 pc of gross domestic product before the pandemic that broke out in early 2020, leaving global travel at the limb.

Still, the total number of foreign visitors in the first seven months of the year was 8.1 million – about a million short of the same period in pre-pandemic levels.

Visitors from the neighbouring country, Spain, represented the largest share of total arrivals in July with 285,900 tourists, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, which has recently marked a surge and became a key source of tourism to Portugal.

The positive impact in the tourism sector and the robust recovery have been evident due to Portugal’s location in Europe’s southern region, which is far away from the war in Ukraine, so people consider it a safe place. Still, the tourism sector faces the same challenges of staffing shortages and high inflation as most other European countries.

INE data previously revealed that Portugal had welcomed a total of 183,215 tourists from the United States, reaching a new record in the number of arrivals from this country.

In total, June saw a total of 181,869 American nationals visiting the country, which is the highest number since 2013, but this record was further broken in the following month, July.

“The United States are discovering Portugal. Americans like what they see. Portugal has history and culture, privileged climate conditions, hospitality, and Portuguese people, in general, speak English,” says secretary general of the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal (AmCham Portugal), Graça Didier.

According to another report, the US will become the main country of origin for tourists in several countries, such as the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Germany, also including Portugal.

As the Barometer of American Companies located in Portugal has revealed, the US accounted for the fifth most significant source of tourism revenue, representing 7 pc of the total.