The Resort Group

Cape Verde tourist figures on the up and Sal Island proves to be THE island of choice.

The number of guests that checked into Cape Verde’s hotels in 2008 rose against 2007, the country’s National Statistic Institute (INE) reported.

Figures from INE showed that 333,345 tourists checked into Cape Verde’s hotel rooms generating 1.82 million overnight stays, which equates to a rise of 27.5 percent year on year.

The INE said that the largest group of the overnight stays related to tourists from the UK (23.2 percent), followed by Italy (18.6 percent), Portugal (14.9 percent) and Germany (13 percent), whilst internal tourism accounted for 6.3 percent.

Sal Island is shown to be the leading destination of choice for the majority of visitors claiming a massive 73.7 percent of overnight stays.
 
The growing success of Cape Verde as an all year round holiday destination is no surprise to Rob Jarrett who said “I never doubted that Cape Verde’s popularity would just grow and grow. From the very first time I stepped onto Sal, I knew this was the new holiday destination. A real alternative to the Caribbean!”

And who can argue. With tourist figures up for the fifth year running and Cape Verde featuring in the Expedia top ten holiday destinations for 2009, the success will just keep on coming.

Click here to view the Expedia Top 10 holiday destinations

Please click on a photograph below to view a larger version.