Data from the Bank of Portugal (BdP), confirm the country's historical trend of having tourism revenues higher than expenditure on travel and tourism, thus obtaining positive balances in the balance of services. In 2024, the balance of travel and tourism rose to €20.9 billion, the highest value since 1948 (beginning of the historical series), representing 7.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This figure compares to the balance of €19.1 billion achieved in the previous year, which corresponded to 7.1% of GDP.

Influencing these results was an 8.8% growth in travel and tourism exports compared to 2023, with revenues reaching the highest value ever: 27,651.51 million euros. Even so, the pace of growth slowed compared to the 19.8% growth recorded in 2023 compared to 2022 – still influenced by the post-pandemic base effect.

In 2024, tourists from the United Kingdom (4,117.82 million euros) were those who spent the most on their trips to Portugal, followed by those from France (3,223.77 million euros) and Germany (3,120.65 million euros), a ranking that remained stable compared to the previous year.

However, in 2023 Spanish tourists occupied fourth place on the list, last year they were dethroned by the United States, whose spending in Portugal amounted to 2,868.37 million euros.

Revenue from tourists of these five nationalities accounted for 58.4%, according to ECO calculations. In the ‘top 10’ of tourists who generated the most revenue for Portugal are the Irish, Brazilians, Dutch, Swiss and Italians.