[Preliminary Note: As of today, the Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) is launching a quarterly release of In Focus, offering an analysis of tourism accommodation statistics for each quarter. This inaugural edition presents data for the first quarter of 2025 concerning the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM). It is important to note that DREM continues to disseminate aggregated data encompassing hotels, rural tourism, and all local accommodation, regardless of bed count. Conversely, Statistics Portugal (INE) excludes local accommodation with fewer than 10 beds in its reporting. Consequently, this bulletin, along with the In Focus report and accompanying tables published by DREM, shows higher overall totals for guests and overnight stays than those reported by INE. For variables such as occupancy rates, rooms, revenues, and personnel costs, the figures are consistent with INE’s, as both exclude local accommodation with fewer than 10 beds in their calculations.]

In the first quarter of 2025

Overnight stays in the tourist accommodation in the Region increased by 7.3% year-on-year

Summary

In the first quarter of 2025, considering all types of accommodation in the ARM (including tourist accommodation, holiday camps, youth hostels, and campsites), there were 476.3 thousand guest arrivals and 2.6 million overnight stays, representing year-on-year increases of 5.3% and 7.3%, respectively.

The average length of stay across all tourist accommodation was 4.80 nights in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 1.8% increase compared to the same period in 2024 (4.71 nights). This growth was more pronounced among residents in Portugal (9.3%), although the absolute value remained higher among non-resident markets (5.22 nights).

Tourist accommodation recorded 473.7 thousand guest arrivals, generating approximately 2.6 million overnight stays, reflecting positive year-on-year changes of 5.4% and 7.4%, respectively. Notably, excluding local accommodation with fewer than 10 beds, overnight stays in tourist accommodation increased by 4.5% compared to the first quarter of 2024, contrasting with the national decline of 0.5%.

Holiday camps and youth hostels registered 1 869 guest arrivals, resulting in 6 016 overnight stays (0.2% of the total), with an average stay of 2.83 nights. Compared to the same period in the previous year, there were decreases of 8.7% in guest numbers, 4.4% in overnight stays, and 1.1% in average stay duration.

Campsites, representing a minimal share of the accommodation sector (0.1%), recorded 689 guest arrivals and 1 760 overnight stays in the first quarter of 2025, corresponding to declines of 27.9% and 18.5%, respectively, compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Tourist Accommodation

In the first quarter of 2025, the tourist accommodation outperformed overall figures, accounting for the majority of tourism activity, with 99.5% of guest arrivals and 99.7% of overnight stays.

The hotel segment accounted for 70.4% of overnight stays (approximately 1.8 million), registering a year-on-year growth of 5.1%. Local accommodation represented 27.3% of the total and grew by 14.3%, while rural tourism, with a 2.2% share, increased by 1.8%. Among establishment types, the most significant growth was observed in the Lodging houses and Quintas da Madeira (+45.8%) and five-star hotels (+23.7%).

The average length of stay in tourist accommodation increased compared to the same quarter of the previous year (4.72 nights), reaching 4.81 nights. The highest values continued to be observed in hotels (4.89 nights) and local accommodation (4.74 nights), while rural tourism presented the lowest average stay (3.61 nights). Within the hotel segment, tourist villages stood out with the highest average stay, reaching 6.99 nights during the reference period (6.88 nights in the first quarter of 2024).

The ARM recorded 366.5 thousand guest arrivals from external markets (foreign residents), generating approximately 2.2 million overnight stays, indicating a 5.2% increase compared to the same period in 2024. The ARM was the region in the country most dependent on external markets in terms of overnight stays, representing 84.6% of the total, followed by Algarve with 81.2%. Conversely, Centro and Alentejo regions had the lowest proportions of non-resident overnight stays, with 24.3% and 31.2%, respectively.

In this quarter, the two main source markets exhibited opposite year-on-year changes in overnight stays: the German market grew by 2.1%, while the British market declined by 2.1%. The Portuguese market (third largest) showed a significant positive change of 21.0% during the same period. These three primary markets accounted for more than half of the overnight stays (55.6%) in the first quarter of 2025.

As the fourth-largest market in the first quarter of 2025, Poland stood out with a 9.4% share of total overnight stays and a total of 241.9 thousand overnight stays, doubling the figure recorded by the French market. This result reflects a 41.1% increase compared to the same period of the previous year.

Ponta do Sol and Câmara de Lobos were the municipalities with the highest dependence on external markets in terms of overnight stays, with 90.7% and 90.5%, respectively. Porto Santo stood out for recording the highest percentage of overnight stays by residents, representing 33.4% of the total.

The municipality of Funchal accounted for more than 60% of the Region's overnight stays, totalling approximately 1.6 million overnight stays in the first quarter of 2025, corresponding to a positive year-on-year change of 1.4%. The overnight stays by residents increased by 21.4%, while those by non-residents decreased by 1.7%.

Santa Cruz was the second municipality with the highest number of overnight stays, accounting for 11.9% of the regional total, contributing 307.6 thousand overnight stays in the first quarter of 2025, representing a 10.7% increase compared to the same period. Overnight stays by foreign residents grew by 10.9%, while those by residents in Portugal increased by 9.3%.

Among the eleven municipalities in the Region, Machico stood out with growth exceeding 100% compared to the first quarter of 2024, both in the resident market (+194.0%) and the foreign resident market (+105.7%).

In the first quarter of 2025, the net bed occupancy rate in tourist accommodation in the Region was 60.4%, representing an increase of 1.3 percentage points compared to the same period in 2024 (59.1%). The room occupancy rate reached 70.5%, compared to 67.6% in the first quarter of 2024.

Total revenue and revenue from accommodation in the first quarter of 2025 registered year-on-year increases of 20.4% and 22.1%, respectively, totalling 162.6 million euros in total revenue and 114.6 million euros in revenue from accommodation.

Since the second quarter of 2021, the overnight stays have shown successive growth, highlighting two distinct phases. From that quarter until the first quarter of 2023, increases were significant, becoming more moderate yet stable thereafter. In the past eight quarters, increases in overnight stays ranged between 5.5% in the third quarter of 2024 and 10.0% in the fourth quarter of the same year.

In the first quarter of 2025, the Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) for tourist accommodation (excluding local accommodation with fewer than 10 beds) was 72.78 euros, reflecting a 20.8% increase compared to the same period, the highest among NUTS 2 regions. In the hotel sector, RevPAR reached 78.40 euros (+22.0% year-on-year change). The Average Daily Rate (ADR) was higher, totalling 103.20 euros across all tourist accommodation (+15.9% compared to the same period) and 105.96 euros in hotels (+15.9%). Notably, both RevPAR and ADR have shown positive trends over the years. Particularly, ADR surpassed 100 euros in the first quarter of this year, a milestone not previously achieved in the first quarters of earlier years.

The highest RevPAR and ADR were recorded in the guesthouses and Madeiran estates segment, with values of 126.23 euros (+25.6% compared to the first quarter of 2024) and 168.85 euros (+4.4%), respectively. By category, five-star hotels stood out (109.40 euros and 156.63 euros, respectively) and four-star hotel apartments (76.04 euros and 96.50 euros, respectively).

For more information, please refer to:

• In Focus (Portuguese only)
• Tables

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