Portugal is among the 20 most visited countries in the world, receiving an average of 13 million foreign tourists each year. Today, most tourists in Portugal are British, Spanish or German, travel in low cost airliners, and are not only in search of the beach and the sun, but mostly searching culture, city breaks, gastronomy, nautical tourism or travel in business. Tourist hotspots in Portugal are Lisbon, the Algarve and Madeira, but the Portuguese government is currently developing new destinations: the Douro Valley, Porto Santo Island, and Alentejo. Porto and Northern Portugal, especially the urban areas north of Douro River, was the tourist destination which grew most (11.9%) in 2006 as its mentioned in Portugal tourist map.

 

Portugal has several other tourism regions such as Douro Sul, Templários, Dão-Lafões, Costa do Sol, Costa Azul, Planície Dourada, etc as you can see in Portugal tourist map. Most of them are unknown to tourists and locals alike. As of 2007, these are being reorganized. All these regions are grouped in tourism reference areas, which are widely known due to the fact that these are the traditional regions: Costa Verde, The Portuguese green coast comprises all the northern coast of Portugal from the estuary of the Minho River to the city of Porto. Costa da Prata, Silver coast. The coast of central Portugal from Porto to Lisbon. Costa de Lisboa, Lisbon coast. The coast of the capital city and its important suburbs. Montanhas, Mountainous and interior regions of northern and central Portugal, namely Serra da Estrela and Trás-os-Montes. Planícies, The Portuguese plane region of Alentejo in the south. Algarve, The southern coast of Portugal. Madeira — The Madeira islands. Açores — The Azores islands.