Tourism and all travel-related revenues account for about 10% of Portugal’s gross domestic product, which expanded 2.7% last year. The tourism sector is also a key source of employment and major component of exports of services.

Preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute also showed that total hotel revenues in the country, including domestic tourism, soared nearly 17% to 3.4 billion euros (RM16.5 billion).

Both the arrivals and revenues grew at approximately the same strong pace as in 2016.

Tourism has been growing steadily since 2011, with hundreds of new hotels and thousands of refurbished apartments for tourists opening across Portugal, promoting the country to one of the top 3 hottest travel destinations worldwide for 2018, according to the Lonely Planet travel book publishers.

Portugal lures tourists, foreigners and locals alike, with its sandy beaches, medieval castles, golfing, and also some of the lowest prices for wining and dining in western Europe. Pop star Madonna last year became the most illustrious of a growing number of foreign residents in Portugal.

British tourists comprised the largest group of visitors last year, but with the smallest increase of just 1% from a year ago, while there were bigger jumps of over 30% in arrivals of visitors from the United States, Poland, and Brazil.