NEW YORK CITY — During the NYU IHIF Conference held here in early June, representatives from Portugal’s tourism and travel industries outlined why the country’s hospitality sector is ripe for investment
“Portugal has a clear ambition to position the country as one of the most competitive and sustainable tourism destinations in the world, and always with sustainability as a key driver of long-term value creation,” said Elisabete Félix, department director of the business development department in the business competitiveness directorate at Portugal Tourism. The strategy, she continued, creates “benefits for investors, local communities and destinations alike.”
By the Numbers
Félix started her presentation with some statistics on how the country’s tourism economy is growing.
In 2025, Portugal recorded €29.1 billion in tourism receipts, up 5 percent year over year and 38 percent over the past four years, alongside 82.1 million overnight stays for 32.5 million guests. Hotels in the country reported €6.2 billion in revenue (up 7.5 percent), occupancy at 66.2 percent, and revenue per available room reached €83.8 (+4.7 percent).
In total, tourism contributes 9.5 percent of Portugal’s gross domestic product.
International travelers account for 69 percent of overnight stays. The U.K. is the largest feeder market (17.7 percent), followed by Germany, the U.S., Spain and France. “The U.S. has been growing very strongly, around 18 percent in just three years,” Félix said. The diversification means that the country does not depend on visitors from any single region.
“Portugal has a strategic location, and Lisbon is like an international hub to America, Africa and Europe,” Félix said. “Lisbon alone connects to 13 cities in North America and 19 cities in Latin America.” Other airports across the country also have direct connections to a range of global hubs, and Félix estimated that 10 major U.S. cities have direct connections to Portugal via five major airlines, with more than 165 weekly flights in the summer and 113 in the winter.
Approximately 45 percent of flights from the U.S. to Portugal come from New York and another 21 percent come from Boston, Félix added, noting that visitors from the U.S. generated €3.1 billion in tourism receipts, up 8 percent year over year.
Investment and Development
Turning to hospitality investment, Félix said that in 2025, Portugal ranked in Europe's top three markets for hotel-investment attractiveness, tied with the U.K., according to a study from CBRE.
As of last year, Portugal has 681 chain hotels with nearly 80,000 rooms. “We see a balanced market with strong national groups, alongside major international brands,” Félix said.
International brands account for about 37 percent of supply from major brands including IHG, Accor, Marriott and Hilton. (The country’s two top brands by room count are the domestic Pestana Hotel Group and Vila Galé Hotéis.) The 82.1 million total overnight stays at accommodations across the country generated average RevPAR of €83.7 with an average daily rate of €129.80.
The investment market itself is described as liquid and increasingly prominent within the broader real estate sector. Hotels account for roughly 30 percent of Portugal’s total real estate investment—significantly higher than the European average of 9 percent. Capital flows are international, with around 30 percent originating from the U.S., and investment is concentrated in key regions such as the Algarve (39 percent) and Lisbon (32 percent), with a strong bias toward luxury assets (79 percent in five-star hotels). This highlights both the scale of opportunity and the premium positioning of the market.
José Tiago Silva, hospitality partner at Portuguese private-markets investment firm Explorer Investments—which has invested €1.2 billion in hospitality so far—said that his company has been profiting from Portugal’s tourism growth. “We see hospitality not as real estate, [but] as a business,” he said, noting that Explorer has its own hotel-management platform. “That's the only way to really create value.”
Beyond attracting tourists, Silva said that Portugal also is attracting capital inflows. In terms of hospitality, this means “steady” investment both into portfolios and single assets. “Together with [Spain], in the last year and the first quarter of this year, we've been one of the most relevant investment markets for hotels,” he said. “Market money is coming mainly from Europe, but a lot also from financial investors from the U.S.” American private equity is “very, very committed and very dedicated,” he added, noting that a number of investments are already underway, particularly in the Algarve and Lisbon. “It's going up after where the tourists are.”
On the flip side, Silva acknowledged limited supply as a headwind facing investors. “There's a lot of demand, a lot of investors trying to get in—but not a lot of supply,” he said. Financing is “very” available, he continued, “even from the local banks at very competitive cost, or … private real-estate lending from international players.” Similarly, third-party operators are available to manage the assets. “The market is pretty evolved in that sense, also,” he said. “The real difficulty is really finding the right assets and acquiring the right assets for the right price.”