According to official data released on Monday, Portugal received more than eight million foreign visitors between January and June, giving it the greatest first half on record.

Nearly 8.2 million foreign visitors stayed in Portuguese hotels during the period, up from 6.3 million a year earlier and 7.4 million in the first half of 2019, a record year for tourism before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated international travel in 2020, according to the National Statistics Institute.

Before the epidemic, Portugal's economy was heavily dependent on tourism, which contributed over 15% of the country's GDP.

With nearly one million visitors, visitors from the British market contributed the biggest percentage of all arrivals in the first half, closely followed by visitors from the Spanish and American markets.

The second-largest international tourist country in June was the United States, whose tourism to Portugal has greatly increased.

According to the INE, the hotel industry welcomed 13.6 million guests, including locals, in the first half of the year, and overall hotel receipts rose 32% yearly to 2.5 billion euros ($2.73 billion).

According to separate data from the INE, the number of travelers who passed through Portuguese airports in the first half of the year increased by 12% from the same period in 2018 and by over 30% from the same period in 2019.

The International Air Transport Association reports that this year, international traffic recovered to almost 90% of its pre-pandemic levels, with travelers to Southern Europe driving the recovery.