Portugal made €29 billion from tourism last year. Here's what that number hides.

Good morning, Lisbon. It's Thursday, 30 April. Nineteen degrees, improving on yesterday, with some cloud. Tomorrow is a public holiday.

🌬️ AIR QUALITY: 24 (Good).

🗞️ TOP STORY

PORTUGAL HAD ITS BEST TOURISM YEAR ON RECORD IN 2025. HERE IS WHAT THAT MEANS IF YOU LIVE HERE.

In 2025, tourism revenue in Portugal reached €29.1 billion, according to figures from the Bank of Portugal. That is a 5% increase on 2024, which was itself a record year. The country welcomed 32.5 million visitors, of whom 19.7 million were foreign. Together they spent 82.1 million overnight stays in Portuguese accommodation. The biggest source markets were the United Kingdom at €4.3 billion in spending, followed by Germany at €3.4 billion and France at €3.2 billion.

Carlos Abade, president of Turismo de Portugal, described the year as unprecedented. The framing from his office has been consistent: fewer tourists are arriving than in previous growth cycles, but those who come are spending more. Revenue grew 5% while guest numbers grew 3% and overnight stays grew 2.2%. Tourism now represents 7.2% of GDP. The balance of tourism receipts versus Portuguese spending abroad reached a record €22 billion, the highest figure in a statistical series that goes back to 1948.

The part of the picture that looks different from the inside is the pressure that number represents on the places it concentrates in. Lisbon and Porto handle the majority of Portugal's international tourism. Nearly 6,800 inactive short-term rental licences were cancelled in Lisbon in a recent compliance sweep after owners failed to update mandatory insurance details and documentation, part of a broader tightening under the city's December 2025 municipal regulation that halved the density thresholds for new registrations. Room rents still averaged €550 a month in the first quarter of 2026, up 10% year on year. The airport logged 188 flight delays in a single day on 20 April, part of a pattern that has placed Lisbon among Europe's least punctual major airports in 2025 and early 2026.

The government knows this. The new Tourism Strategy 2035, which replaces the current Tourism Strategy 2027, explicitly names balancing growth with residents' quality of life as a core objective. Abade has acknowledged that Humberto Delgado Airport remains a constraint and that the visitor experience arriving through Lisbon needs to improve.

The record is real and the money funds genuine public goods. Tourism supports employment, underpins the fiscal surplus, and has positioned Portugal as one of Europe's most resilient economies through a period of significant regional instability. None of that is nothing. But the city that hosts the majority of those visitors is the same city where people are paying €550 a month for a room and waiting two hours at the airport. The record and the cost of the record are not separate things.

Bottom line: The question Portugal is trying to answer in its tourism strategy for the next decade is whether the growth model that produced €29.1 billion can be sustained without pricing the people who live here out of the place that tourists are paying record sums to visit.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Transavia France is cutting flights to and from Portugal this summer over fuel costs. The Air France-KLM subsidiary confirmed on 27 April it is cancelling less than 2% of its May and June schedule, equivalent to roughly 50 flights, after jet fuel costs hit €88 per barrel, up 40% year on year. The International Air Transport Association put the broader European aviation fuel price increase at 105.7% since last year. Transavia has also added a €5 per journey surcharge on remaining flights. Europe imports around half of its jet fuel from Gulf producers, and the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked since late February. Passengers on cancelled flights are entitled to free rebooking, a voucher or a full refund. Check your booking directly on transavia.com if you have summer travel planned.

EU USB-C laptop charging became mandatory on Tuesday. From yesterday, 28 April, all laptops sold in the EU must use USB-C charging under Directive 2022/2380, completing a rollout that already covers phones and tablets. One practical note: not all USB-C chargers are the same. Phones typically need 20 to 30 watts; laptops require at least 65 watts, with high-performance models needing 90 to 100 watts. A phone charger will not charge a laptop at full speed. Check the wattage before assuming your cable works across devices.

Portugal's GNR has issued a holiday rental scam warning. With peak tourist season approaching, the national police force flagged a rise in fraudulent listings for holiday accommodation, particularly in the Algarve and Lisbon. GNR recorded 725 fraud cases related to property rentals and purchases in 2025, with Faro leading at 153 incidents. Common patterns include deposits paid to fake landlords, properties that do not exist, and listings cloned from legitimate sites with different payment details. Verify directly with the property owner before transferring money and use payment methods with consumer protection.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

DOIS CORVOS TAPROOM (MARVILA)

In 2015, Susana Cascais and Scott Steffens opened a small brewery in a former industrial building on Rua Capitão Leitão in Marvila, at a time when Marvila was still mostly empty warehouses and nobody was going there. They were the first brewery in the neighbourhood. The production brewery has since moved to a larger facility nearby, but the original space became a taproom, and it remains one of the best places in Lisbon to spend a Thursday afternoon.

Seventeen taps. All Dois Corvos beers, with a handful of exclusives brewed specifically for the space that do not appear anywhere else. A full kitchen alongside, not crisps and nuts, an actual menu. The room is warehouse-industrial in the way that is honest rather than designed: high ceilings, exposed brick, a neighbourhood outside that still looks like what Marvila was before the creative regeneration arrived, because this place helped start that regeneration.

Going into a long weekend on a May Day eve, this is the right call.

→ Check out what’s on tap ←

Rua Capitão Leitão 94, Marvila. Check their Instagram (@doiscorvos) for current hours and events. If you like IPAs and sours, both worth asking about.

Insider tip: Get there mid-afternoon for the quieter version before the after-work crowd arrives.

📅 WHAT'S ON

See you tomorrow morning.