“The survey carried out to our associates, in June, pointed to occupancy levels around 90%", says the president of the Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal (AHP) pointed to occupancy levels around 90%", says the president of the Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal (AHP), in statements to ECO, adding that, at this moment, the hotel industry in Lisbon “even 4 stars will achieve this objective ”, while “5 star hotels will be below” , with an occupancy rate that will be around 70% to 75%.

Bernardo Trindade, who is also director of PortoBay Hotels & Resorts and former Secretary of State for Tourism, explains that this trend is due to the fact that the target audience of 5-star hotels has a “greater purchasing power” and given that Between one million and one and a half million visitors are expected in the Portuguese capital during WYD “they prefer to visit the city and the region at another time”.

This trend is, moreover, signalled by two of the largest hotel chains in the country. To ECO, the Pestana Hotel Group estimates that, during the first week of August, the occupancy rates of the group's hotels in the Lisbon region “will fall short of the values ​​recorded in the same week of last year, and, in the following week, the level of reserves grows to values ​​greater than 2022″.

At the moment, the occupancy rates of the Pestana Hotel Group forecast for the Lisbon region , for the week of August 1st to 6th “are around 65%, which represents a value 25% lower than the occupancy rate in 2022 in the same period”, while in the Lisbon area, 4-star hotels and inns predict "a 16% lower occupancy , compared to 2022", points out an official source for the group, in response to ECO.

As signaled by the AHP, the trend is more noticeable in the five-star hotels and inns of the Pestana Hotel Group, which currently have “lower occupancies than last year, registering a decrease of 60 %, values ​​that immediately return to normality the following week, with occupancy rates greater than 2022″.

On the other hand, in Cascais, and although the occupancy rate is currently lower than the same period last year, the Pestana Hotel Group expects that, with last minute bookings, “occupancy will be 7% higher than last year”.

The CEO of Vila Galé points out that the occupancy rate at the Vila Galé Ópera hotel, in Alcântara, for the week of August 1st to 6th “is around 83% , which compares with around 95% in the same period last year ” . “If we consider all six hotels of the group on the Lisbon Coast (Vila Galé Collection Palácio dos Arcos, Vila Galé Sintra, Vila Galé Estoril, Vila Galé Cascais, Vila Galé Ericeira and Vila Galé Ópera), the occupancy rate is around 82% , compared to 93% in the same period”, adds Gonçalo Rebelo de Almeida, speaking to ECO.