Foreigners using NOS roaming rises 67.4% between May and August

“ NOS data records provenient users from at least 144 different nationalities”, according to the data, which considers customer movements and, in the case of international visitors, users of foreign roaming operators on their network.

According to the operator, “data confirm the strong importance of European markets for international tourism in Portugal”, especially France, which represented almost a third (30%) of all foreigners.

Secondly, Spain (16%), followed by the United Kingdom (8%).

“ There is also a relevant presence of people from the United States (7%), especially in the main urban centers,” says NOS.

According to the information, it is in Lisbon that more international tourists/emigrants are concentrated, with about 20% of all foreign users during the month of August, followed by Faro (15.6%), Porto (13.9%), Braga (6.2%) and Setúbal and Viana do Castelo (both with 5%).

“It is in Alentejo that less international visitors are concentrated – Portalegre has only 0.8% of all foreigners, Évora 0.9% and Beja 1.1%”, says the analysis of NOS.

“ The data show that the destinations with the highest total volume of users of foreign operators are not necessarily the most internationalised, so looking at the percentage of international users within the region itself, it is “in the autonomous regions that internationalisation is more pronounced in summer”.

During August, in the Azores, “international tourists/emigrants account for 67% of the total in the region, while in Madeira there are 66%. In mainland Portugal, the districts with the highest percentage of international are Viana do Castelo with 61%, Faro with 59%, and Vila Real with 50%”.

In terms of vacation time, this was generally between three and five days.

“ However, the existence of a relevant volume of tourists with longer stays makes the average duration of holidays significantly longer, reaching values between 6 and 10 days in many destinations in the interior, Alentejo and the Autonomous Regions”, according to the analysis.

The districts “where summerers took longer, on average, were in Portalegre (7.2 days), Viseu, Coimbra and Aveiro (6.7 days).

The municipalities with longer average stays “were Pedrógão Grande (10.1 days), Avis (9.8 days), Monforte (9.3 days) and Tondela (9.2 days), showing an increased capacity to retain visitors during prolonged periods”.

Conversely, “the large urban centres and destinations with high tourist rotation had shorter stays, namely the districts of Setúbal (5.3 days), Porto (5.4 days) and Lisbon (5.7 days). Speaking specifically of the municipalities, Porto (3.6 days), Loulé (3.6 days), Funchal (3.9 days), Cascais (4.0 days) and Sintra (4.1 days) stand out for the short duration”.