River tourism on the Douro River reached 600 thousand passengers in 2014

2014 was considered one of the best years ever in terms of river tourism on the Douro River with approximately 600,000 passengers travelling on the cruise boats, small sailing vessels or boat hotels that sail up the river.

Data from the Douro Delegation of the Institute of Mobility and Transport reveal that in 2014,600,000 passengers sailed on the Douro River, up 45,000 from 2013 figures.

The cruising boats transported the most passengers (about 400,000) on trips of varied duration between Porto and Gaia and in Entre-os-Rios, Régua, Pinhão, Foz do Sabor and Pocinho. The majority of these trips are taken by foreigners (57%).

Trips made on boat hotels saw an increase of 30%, reaching 55,000 passengers. Most of the passengers are from the United States of America (29%), France (19%) and the United Kingdom (13%).

The one-day trips exceeded 160,000 passengers, showing an increase of 6% in relation to 2013. These boats’ main itineraries are Porto-Régua-Porto, Régua-Pinhão-Régua and Régua-Barca d’Alva-Régua. The majority of the passengers are Portuguese (93%).