Tourism pressure rises in Portugal’s biggest cities

The measure compares overnight stays in tourist accommodation with the area of each municipality. Lisbon reached 437.24 overnight stays per square kilometre, 1.4% more than in 2024. Porto was close behind at 437.19, after a 5.3% rise.

The national average also increased by 2.1%, to 2.43. In practical terms, the indicator gives an idea of how concentrated overnight tourism is in a particular area.

The figures do not mean that every neighbourhood is equally busy, or that visitors are spread evenly across the year. They provide one way to compare the concentration of tourist stays across municipalities. Other measures look at tourism in relation to the number of local residents, which can give a different picture.

In the South

That distinction matters for the Algarve.

ECO’s report notes that Albufeira’s figure for overnight stays relative to its resident population fell in 2025, from 33.26 to 32.21. This is a separate measure from the tourist-density figures for Lisbon and Porto, so the numbers should not be directly compared.

The change does, however, show that the indicators can move in different directions from one municipality to another.

Tourism continued to grow across the country last year. Turismo de Portugal reported around 82.1 million overnight stays in 2025, up 2.2% on the previous year, and tourism receipts of €29.1 billion, a rise of 5%.

The Algarve recorded 20.8 million overnight stays, of which around 16 million were by international visitors.

Contributions

The national figures show the scale of tourism’s contribution to Portugal, while the municipal indicators highlight how differently that growth is experienced from place to place. Lisbon and Porto saw tourist stays become more concentrated within their urban areas. In the Algarve, where tourism remains a major part of the regional economy, Albufeira’s resident-based figure edged down.

The figures cover the whole year, so they do not show how much visitor numbers rise during the summer. They show that tourist density increased in Lisbon and Porto in 2025, while Albufeira’s separate measure of overnight stays relative to residents edged down.