Portugal Aligns With Greece as Senior Travellers Emerge as Secret Weapon Against Overtourism and Empty Shoulder Seasons

Portugal and Greece are aiming to attract a different type of visitor to extend their tourism seasons in 2026. The concept is to target senior travelers to support ‘shoulder’ season visits. It is hoped that this will assist to address the issues associated with ‘over’ tourism. This model has the potential to work well in both, and other, European countries where a trend of the 65 year and over age group is moving away from the traditional peak travel months of July and August. Both countries are keen to amend their tourism models to encourage a more balanced and sustainable tourism visitation. Portugal has targets to reduce seasonality and improve regional diversification. Greece is concentrating on increasing off season visits. In both countries, the model has positive outcomes for the tourism value chain, the tourism sector and the visiting public.

Summary Quick Points:

• Senior travellers favour shoulder seasons: Eurostat data show travellers aged 65+ spend a large share of their tourism nights outside the July-August peak, supporting year-round demand.
• Portugal and Greece are tackling seasonality: Both countries are promoting more balanced tourism through regional diversification, alternative experiences, accessibility and longer visitor seasons.
• Tourism businesses could benefit: More senior travel in spring and autumn could support hotels, airlines, restaurants, attractions and local businesses during traditionally quieter months.

Why senior travellers matter to the fight against seasonality

The strongest evidence behind this emerging tourism opportunity comes from European travel behaviour rather than marketing theory.

Eurostat found that travellers aged 65 and over spent 58% of their tourism nights during the shoulder season in its 2022 data. Eurostat defines that period as March to June and September to November. Older travellers were also more inclined to travel domestically and recorded an average trip length of 6.3 nights.

That travel pattern matters for destinations where large numbers of visitors continue to arrive during a relatively narrow summer window. It means older travellers already display some of the behaviour tourism authorities want to encourage: travelling beyond July and August.

The opportunity is therefore not simply to attract more tourists. It is to distribute demand across a longer part of the calendar.

The Eurostat analysis of senior travel patterns provides the clearest official European evidence supporting that connection.

Portugal enters 2026 from a position of tourism strength

Portugal does not need to create tourism demand from scratch. The country is already managing a large and economically important visitor economy.

According to Turismo de Portugal’s final 2025 figures, the country recorded 32.5 million guests and around 82 million overnight stays. Tourism receipts reached €29.1 billion, an increase of 5% from 2024.

International visitors remained central to that performance. Almost seven in ten accommodation nights came from non-residents.

The United Kingdom remained Portugal’s largest international accommodation market, while Germany, the United States, Spain and France were also major sources of overnight demand.

That success creates a different policy challenge. The question is increasingly about when visitors travel, where they stay and how tourism benefits can reach more communities.

Portugal’s official tourism indicators put its seasonality measure at 36.6% in 2024, down 0.3 percentage points from 2023. That modest movement shows why spreading demand remains relevant even as headline tourism indicators reach record levels.

Portugal’s 2026 numbers show tourism remains resilient

The momentum has continued this year.

Turismo de Portugal reported that accommodation establishments welcomed 18.5 million guests between January and July 2026, generating 46.5 million overnight stays.

July alone produced 3.4 million guests and 9.6 million overnight stays. Overnight stays were up 2.1% from July 2025.

Tourism receipts for the first seven months of 2026 were estimated at €16.52 billion, 3.6% above the corresponding 2025 figure.

The regional picture is also notable. In July, overnight stays increased by 7.5% in Alentejo and 6.3% in the North, demonstrating that tourism growth is not confined to Portugal’s best-known coastal destinations.

Source: Turismo de Portugal, Statistics Portugal and Banco de Portugal.

Portugal is explicitly trying to reduce seasonality

Portugal’s official tourism strategy provides the crucial policy connection.

The Strategic Council for Tourism Promotion identified reducing seasonality as part of its priorities for 2026. Portugal plans to strengthen air connectivity, consolidate existing routes and diversify the country’s tourism offer.

The promotion strategy also gives attention to products that can work beyond traditional beach holidays. These include gastronomy, wine tourism, literary tourism, contemporary art and surfing.

That is important because extending tourism seasons requires something for visitors to do when summer beaches are no longer the main attraction.

Portugal is also developing Tourism Strategy 2035, intended to succeed Tourism Strategy 2027 and provide a longer-term framework for the sector.

The direction is clear: stronger regional distribution, sustainability and competitiveness are becoming increasingly important alongside visitor growth.

Turismo de Portugal’s 2026 tourism promotion priorities

Accessibility makes the senior market more important

Seasonality is only one part of the equation.

Older travellers can travel outside summer, but destinations must be able to accommodate different mobility, information and accessibility requirements.

Portugal has been strengthening this part of its tourism infrastructure.

Its All for All programme supports the development of accessible tourism destinations. Turismo de Portugal has also worked with the European Network for Accessible Tourism on guidance for destination managers.

In 2026, Portugal continued its Accessible Festivals programme. Events are assessed for mobility, comfort, safety, information and independent movement.

Turismo de Portugal explicitly states that these accessibility measures can benefit older people as well as travellers with disabilities, families with children and visitors experiencing temporary mobility restrictions.

That matters commercially.

Turismo de Portugal’s TravelBI platform reported in May 2026 that international research involving 3,473 European travellers with accessibility requirements found strong travel participation and a willingness among this market to travel outside the high season.

The same research highlighted continuing problems involving transport, accommodation and clear accessibility information.

That points to a wider opportunity. Accessible tourism infrastructure designed well enough for travellers with different needs can also make shoulder-season trips more practical for older visitors.

Greece faces a similar tourism-balancing challenge

Greece enters this debate from another position of tourism strength.

Final Bank of Greece data show that travel receipts reached €23.63 billion in 2025, increasing 9.4% from the previous year.

Inbound traveller flows increased by 6.4%. Total overnight stays rose 1.6% to approximately 244.7 million.

The Southern Aegean accounted for the largest share of travel receipts and overnight stays, while Attica received the highest number of visits.

Average expenditure per trip increased to €545.5 in 2025. However, the average length of stay declined from 5.9 to 5.6 nights.

Those figures underline both the scale and concentration of Greek tourism.

Popular islands and established coastal areas remain central to the visitor economy. At the same time, the country has strong cultural, wellness, gastronomic, mountain and mainland products capable of supporting travel outside the traditional summer holiday period.

Greece is seeing strong 2026 visitor growth

The latest Bank of Greece figures available for the first half of 2026 show another substantial increase.

Inbound traveller flows rose 15.4% between January and June 2026, reaching approximately 13.49 million.

Travel receipts increased 14.8% to €8.8 billion over the same period.

June alone brought 4.92 million inbound travellers, 6.9% more than in June 2025. Travel receipts for the month reached €3.48 billion.

Source: Bank of Greece.

Bank of Greece June 2026 travel services data

Greece is building tourism beyond the classic summer model

The seasonality question is not new for Greece.

The Greek Ministry of Tourism’s alternative tourism programme explicitly identifies reducing the seasonality of tourism demand as one of the benefits of developing specialised tourism products.

Alternative tourism broadens the reasons people have to travel.

Culture, nature, gastronomy, wellness, walking routes, rural experiences and other specialised products can create reasons to visit beyond the peak beach season.

Greece has also placed greater emphasis on sustainable and balanced tourism development. In May 2026, Deputy Tourism Minister Anna Karamanli described sustainability as a central axis for the future direction of Greek tourism.

The Bank of Greece has separately pointed to signs that tourism demand is extending beyond the traditional peak. Its March 2026 economic note said strong fourth-quarter tourism performance in 2025 reinforced evidence of a longer tourism season.

That creates a useful intersection with Europe’s ageing travel market.

Why older travellers fit the shoulder-season model

The commercial logic is straightforward.

Many retired travellers are less constrained by annual leave, school holidays and fixed weekend travel periods. Eurostat’s data show the result in actual travel behaviour, with a substantially larger share of senior tourism nights falling outside July and August.

That flexibility can create benefits across the tourism chain.

Hotels can sell rooms during periods when occupancy would otherwise weaken. Restaurants and attractions can retain demand after summer crowds decline. Guides and tour operators can run products for longer.

Airlines can also benefit where sufficient demand supports routes deeper into spring and autumn.

For travellers, shoulder seasons can offer another set of advantages. Temperatures may be more comfortable for sightseeing, queues can be shorter and major cultural sites may feel less congested than during peak summer weeks.

These advantages should not be interpreted as guarantees of low prices or empty attractions. Demand varies considerably by city, island, event and holiday period.

Could senior tourism actually reduce overtourism?

The answer requires precision.

Older travellers cannot by themselves solve overtourism. Nor is there official evidence that Portugal or Greece has designated senior visitors as a single policy solution to crowding.

What the evidence shows is more specific.

Senior travellers in the EU disproportionately travel during shoulder months. Portugal is officially seeking to reduce seasonality. Greece is developing alternative and more balanced forms of tourism. Both countries are simultaneously recording high visitor demand.

That creates a clear alignment between traveller behaviour and destination policy goals.

If a greater share of existing demand moves into spring and autumn, destinations may gain more tourism activity without placing all incremental pressure on the busiest summer weeks.

The second opportunity is geographic.

Senior-friendly cultural, gastronomic, wellness and nature itineraries can direct spending towards places beyond famous coastal hotspots. That can strengthen regional economies while offering visitors different experiences.

Hotels could be among the biggest beneficiaries

Hotels face one of tourism seasonality’s clearest commercial problems: rooms cannot be stored and sold later.

An unsold hotel night is permanently lost revenue.

A stronger shoulder season travel market can therefore improve the economics of keeping properties open longer, particularly in leisure destinations with highly seasonal demand.

Portugal already had more than 500,000 tourist accommodation bed places in its 2025 official performance indicators.

A longer operating period can spread fixed costs over more trading months and potentially sustain employment for longer periods.

For Greek island and resort hotels, the principle is similar. Extending demand beyond the summer peak can support longer seasons where transport links, staffing and local services remain available.

Senior travellers may also be attractive to hotels because longer, slower itineraries can create demand for extended stays rather than short peak-period visits.

Airlines and airports have a role in extending the season

Accommodation cannot extend the tourism calendar without transport.

Portugal’s 2026 promotion strategy explicitly connects stronger air connectivity with efforts to mitigate seasonality.

Portuguese airports recorded around 36 million arriving passengers in 2025, up 4.7%.

The opportunity is not simply adding more summer capacity. Maintaining viable international connections during spring, autumn and potentially winter allows destinations to support more evenly distributed demand.

Greece faces a comparable challenge because connectivity to many leisure destinations expands sharply for summer and contracts outside it.

Where year-round or extended-season air links are commercially sustainable, senior travellers with flexible calendars can form part of the demand mix supporting them.

This does not mean routes should be built around seniors alone. It means older travellers can complement business, visiting-friends-and-relatives, cultural and leisure demand during weaker periods.

Local businesses could gain from a longer visitor economy

Seasonality reaches far beyond hotels and airlines.

Restaurants, cafés, taxis, museums, excursion providers, shops, guides and small tourism companies all depend on visitor spending.

When demand is compressed into a few months, businesses face a sharp cycle of peak pressure followed by quieter trading.

Spreading visitors into April, May, September, October and November can potentially produce a more continuous revenue base.

This can be particularly significant outside Lisbon, Porto, Athens and Greece’s most famous islands.

Portugal’s regional tourism strategy increasingly focuses on territorial cohesion. Greece’s alternative tourism approach similarly seeks to use natural and cultural resources more broadly.

Senior visitors interested in heritage, food, wine, religious tourism, wellness and slower itineraries fit naturally into many of these products.

The economic opportunity goes beyond visitor numbers

Portugal and Greece already attract millions of international visitors. Their next challenge is not simply maximising arrivals.

The quality, timing and distribution of tourism spending increasingly matter.

Portugal generated €29.1 billion in tourism receipts during 2025. Greece generated €23.63 billion.

That makes tourism a major source of export income for both economies.

Extending demand into quieter months can support revenue without requiring every additional euro to be earned during the most congested weeks of summer.

There is also an employment dimension.

Longer operating seasons can create conditions for tourism businesses to retain staff for more months. However, official sources reviewed for this article do not provide a quantified estimate of how many additional jobs could result specifically from senior shoulder-season tourism.

Any employment gain should therefore be treated as an opportunity rather than a forecast.

What Portugal and Greece must get right for older travellers

Attracting senior travellers requires more than advertising sunny autumn weather.

Accessibility must work across the entire journey.

Important considerations include:

• Step-free transport and accommodation
• Reliable information about walking distances and gradients
• Accessible bathrooms and hotel rooms
• Clear public transport information
• Seating and rest areas at major attractions
• Simple digital booking systems
• Access to human assistance when required
• Reliable healthcare and emergency information

Portugal has made accessibility a visible part of destination development through All for All and its accessible tourism programmes.

For Greece, the broader push towards sustainable and inclusive tourism will be particularly important as the country expands travel beyond traditional high-season products.

Digital technology can help, but it should not become another barrier. Older travellers vary enormously in mobility, confidence and digital skills.

What travellers should know before booking

Travellers considering Portugal or Greece outside peak summer should check the destination rather than relying only on national averages.

Lisbon, Porto and Athens can remain busy throughout much of the year. Popular islands can also have very different operating calendars.

Some seasonal hotels, restaurants, ferries and attractions may reduce schedules outside summer.

Travellers should therefore check:

• accommodation opening dates;
• direct flight availability;
• ferry schedules in Greece;
• local public transport frequency;
• attraction opening hours;
• accessibility requirements;
• travel insurance;
• expected temperatures and weather.

For travellers who value cultural sightseeing over beach heat, spring and autumn can provide a particularly practical travel window.

Future outlook is increasingly about balance rather than volume

Portugal’s policy direction is moving towards a longer-term Tourism Strategy 2035, while its 2026 promotional priorities already stress sustainability, connectivity, regional diversification and reduced seasonality.

Greece is also pursuing a more sustainable tourism model while promoting alternative forms of travel capable of widening the visitor season.

Neither government has officially announced a strategy that makes older travellers the central solution to overtourism.

Yet the demographic evidence is difficult to ignore.

Europe’s senior travellers already travel differently from younger age groups. They place a greater proportion of their tourism nights outside the peak summer period.

For destinations trying to build a less seasonal visitor economy, that behaviour has strategic value.

The opportunity for Portugal and Greece is therefore not simply to attract more senior travellers. It is to make destinations accessible and attractive enough that travellers who already prefer quieter months can confidently choose them.

FAQs for travellers

Is spring or autumn a good time for senior travellers to visit Portugal and Greece?

Yes, depending on the planned itinerary. Spring and autumn can offer milder temperatures and less peak-season pressure, particularly for sightseeing and cultural trips. Travellers should still check local weather, accommodation availability and transport schedules because conditions differ significantly between mainland cities, islands and resort areas.

Are Portugal and Greece fully accessible for travellers with reduced mobility?

Accessibility varies by destination and property. Portugal has formal accessible-tourism programmes and destination-management guidance, but travellers should still confirm individual hotel rooms, transport services and attractions before booking. Greece also has accessible facilities in many tourism areas, although historic sites, steep streets and island terrain can create mobility challenges. Request precise accessibility information rather than relying only on general descriptions.

Should senior travellers book travel insurance for a shoulder-season trip?

Travel insurance is strongly advisable, particularly for travellers who need medical cover, cancellation protection or assistance during disruption. Visitors should check whether a policy covers existing medical conditions, medication, emergency treatment and repatriation where relevant. European travellers should also verify the healthcare arrangements that apply to their nationality and destination.

Conclusion

Portugal and Greece are in a position to broaden tourism seasonally with a focus on senior tourism. Flexible, off-season travel dates for seniors provides the opportunity for the destinations to use alternative, less peak, seasons. The destinations can work to meet the demands of the senior traveler by evaluating various modes of transport to and within the country, and accommodations and health care services. Providing quality, relevant information to senior travelers and their families is imperative.

The focus for Portugal and Greece should be on optimizing the current tourism offerings to achieve an improvement in the length of the tourism season while dispersing visitors to more off-peak areas in a more sustainable manner.