Portugal’s hotel sector has been hard hit by the pandemic, with at least 166 hotels on sale at the end of October, according to a report by real estate media website Idealista.
In the centre of Portugal alone, there were 53 hotels for sale, 15% more than those for sale in March. The north of Portugal and the Algarve tops the list of places with more hotels for sale, with 37 and 29 respectively, Idealista noted.
The island of Madeira saw the biggest rise in the six months registered, with the number of hotel sales rising by 100% (five establishments in March and 10 in October).
The northern region of Portugal and capital Lisbon saw a drop in hotels however, with 37 and 17 hotels for sale respectively, a drop of 21% and 19%.
Portugal had a booming tourism industry before the pandemic, attracting millions of tourists annually. Recently the country extended a state of emergency which is likely to go on until January 7, in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19.
All regions in Portugal saw a decline in overnight stays in October, with the sharpest decline seen in Lisbon, Algarve and the Azores, according to the National Institute of Statistics. Overnight stays in Portugal decreased 63.3% in October compared to the same month in 2019.
Lisbon, the Algarve and the Azores saw a drop in overnight stays of 76.7%, 63.7% and 61.4% respectively.
