Portugal set records in 2025 — 34.8 million guests, 89.7 million overnight stays — and Lisbon municipality kept the crown: the country's most-visited city, ~16% of national nights, at Europe's lowest seasonality.
Portugal's 2025 was the strongest on record: 34.8 million guests (+2.2%) and 89.7 million overnight stays (+1.6%), revenue €7.13 billion (+6.9%), with foreigners generating 67.1% of nights. Tourism receipts hit €29.1 billion (+5.0%). Lisbon municipality remained the most-visited in the country, ~15.9% of national overnight stays, ahead of Albufeira and Porto.
The city's own profile: Lisbon metropolitan hotels ran 74.1% occupancy at €165.20 ADR in 2025 — Portugal's highest-yielding urban market — while Greater Lisbon posted the country's lowest seasonality (30.3% overall, 28.0% for residents). The first five months of 2026 brought Portugal 12 million guests and 28.7 million overnights, with Lisbon again the top municipality.
Markets: the UK leads nationally (2.5M guests; 10.1M nights), then the USA (2.4M guests, +3.2%; 3.1M nights, +8.0%), Spain, Germany and France (−6.4% guests). The US slowdown in mid-2026 — Lisbon −6% in July — is the first pause in a decade-long American surge; Poland (+10.8%) and Canada (+10.3%) were the year's fastest climbers. Lisbon holds Europe's Leading City Break Destination crown at the World Travel Awards.
Lisbon has quietly become the year-round city Europe claims to want: Greater Lisbon's seasonality rate of 30.3% is the country's lowest — winter weekends fill on city breaks, cruise calls and Web Summit-scale events. Use it: January–March delivers the same light at half the ADR, and even August — peak at 3.5 million airport passengers — is manageable because locals leave for the Algarve. The market mix is the diversification story: the UK leads (10.1M nights nationally), but the top three markets' share of foreign nights fell to 38.5%, the lowest since 2013 — Poland +10.8%, Canada +10.3%, while the US wobbles (−6% in Lisbon in July 2026 after years of surge). That is what resilience looks like. For the watcher: the city's constraint is no longer demand but politics — the doubled €4 tax, rental regulation and the airport ceiling all say the same thing: Lisbon is managing success, not chasing it.
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