Portugal's tourism industry posted another record year in 2025, generating €36.2 billion and accounting for 11.8% of national GDP, figures from the Tourism Satellite Account, published by Statistics Portugal (INE), show.
Alongside this, tourism's direct and indirect activity made up 11.4% of the country's Gross Value Added, equivalent to €30.4 billion—further evidence of just how deeply the sector is woven into Portugal's wider economy, from hotels and restaurants to transport and retail.
Both figures grew comfortably compared with the previous year: the GDP contribution was up 5.3% on 2024, whilst GVA rose by 5.5%. On paper, then, tourism is going from strength to strength, pulling in ever-larger sums each year.
Look beneath the headline numbers, though, and a different story emerges. INE's data show that whilst tourism keeps adding to Portugal's real (volume) GDP growth, the size of that contribution has been shrinking year after year, highlighting a lower reliance on the sector.
Back in 2022, tourism was responsible for 3.6 percentage points of the country's 7.0% GDP growth—a huge share, driven by the sudden rebound in travel once pandemic restrictions lifted. That contribution nearly halved in 2023, falling to 1.2 percentage points out of 3.1% total growth, as the recovery began to settle down.
The slide has carried on since. Tourism added just 0.4 percentage points to GDP growth of 2.2% in 2024, and a mere 0.3 percentage points to growth of 1.9% in 2025. So even though the sector keeps bringing in more money each year, its influence on how fast the overall economy is actually growing has become much smaller.
None of this is especially surprising. The huge growth figures of 2022 and 2023 were essentially a one-off—the result of pent-up travel demand and borders reopening after COVID. As that bounce fades and growth becomes more broad-based across other parts of the economy, it was inevitable that tourism's share of the growth story would shrink too.
Even so, with tourists still spending tens of billions of euros in Portugal every year, the sector remains fundamental to the country's economy—not just for the revenue it generates directly, but for everything that depends on it, including hospitality, transport, retail and property.
About Portugal Investment Owners Club
The Portugal Investment Owners Club, or P Club for short, is a unique investor membership community designed for discerning individuals, families, and organisations committed to exploring and capitalising on life in Portugal and enjoying money-can't-buy experiences and exclusive events.
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