In July, Portugal registered a decline of 19.3 thousand overnight stays from North American tourists, with Greater Lisbon and the Algarve contributing most significantly to this decrease. However, the North region was the only one in mainland Portugal to buck this trend, with an additional 10.7 thousand overnight stays from American tourists, a year-on-year growth of 9.3%, according to data from the National Statistics Institute.
Luís Pedro Martins, president of Porto and North Portugal Tourism, attributes this success to three factors: the air connections to Francisco Sá Carneiro airport, which he considers "a critical success factor", the cultural and natural heritage of the Douro combined with wine tourism, and strong external promotion actions in the United States and Canada. The official also announces that in 2027 American Airlines will start connecting Philadelphia to Porto, in addition to a possible new TAP route between Washington and Porto. In the Douro, American tourists are already number one, surpassing the Spanish.
The official also criticizes the situation of Humberto Delgado airport in Lisbon, stating that "absolutely certainty we won't have an airport even in a decade" and that the trend is for things to get worse. In contrast, Francisco Sá Carneiro airport had 17 million passengers in 2025, with 7% growth in 2026, and has approximately 130 routes and over 30 operating airlines.
Looking to the future, Porto and North Tourism intends to invest heavily in the Asia-Pacific market, including Japan, South Korea, and China, as well as Mexico and Argentina. The region achieved 130.2 million euros in total revenue in July (+5.2%) and 659.5 million since the beginning of the year (+5.9%), with 5.4 million overnight stays from non-residents. Luís Pedro Martins advocates for a strategy of distributing tourists throughout the entire region during all 365 days of the year, emphasizing that "Porto and the North does not have a selfish vision," promoting complementarity with other regions.
