Anyone visiting Porto recently can hardly fail to see the boom in visitor numbers in recent years – the hotels are full, the bars are packed, the restaurants are booked up and the whole place is buzzing. The statistics just now released for the first 6 months of 2017 confirm what anyone can see:
-visitor numbers for Porto and northern Portugal are up 9% to 1.9 million (around 50% national and 50% international)
-these 1.9 million tourists spent €185 million
-spend per hotel room up €37 or 25%

There is no doubt that the terrorist threat in more dangerous parts of the world has really helped Porto and northern Portugal to grow its tourism industry, but more than this, there is clearly a virtuous circle going on, with increasing demand from international tourists leading to more flight destinations from Porto airport, more luxury hotels being built, more tourist activities being set up and better tourist infrastructure, which in turn drives word-of-mouth recommendations to set the circle spinning again.

Giddy with success, some are asking where is it all going to end (are there too many 4 and 5 star hotels being built along the Douro river?), but most are happy to ride the wave and just enjoy the fact that Porto and the surrounding areas has more to offer than ever both for casual tourists and for the PortoEvents menu of conferences, away-days and other corporate events in Porto.