Portugal’s Room Count Rising to the Occasion

Tourism to Portugal from the U.S. has been on an upswing since 2005, and the numbers show that trend still going strong, despite the tumbling economy and high fuel prices.

The destination managed to pull out a 20 percent jump in U.S. visits in 2007. This growth will effectively double the number of hotels in Lisbon alone.

To accommodate those still-growing numbers, 57 new resorts are set to open by the end of the decade, and of those, 37 properties, most in the four-and five-star category, will open in the Lisbon region.

The next region to see the most new hotels will be Leiria/Fatima, where the construction of five four-star hotels will meet the growing demands of religious tourism.