Sintra, Portugal, March 9, 2026 (Lusa) - Parques de Sintra-Monte da Lua recorded 3.1 million visitors to the various monuments under its management in 2025, a reduction compared to 2024, but one that the company's president justified as an "improvement in the quality of visits".
"In 2025, we had 3.1 million visitors to the different national monuments we manage at Parques de Sintra," said João Sousa Rego, chairman of the board of directors of Parques de Sintra-Monte da Lua (PSML), in an interview with the Lusa news agency.
The previous year, the monuments managed by the publicly owned company recorded 3.4 million visitors.
According to PSML data, in 2025, the park and the Pena National Palace had 1.9 million visitors (compared to 2.1 million in 2024), the Moorish Castle 409,000 (450,000), the National Palace of Sintra 400,000 (450,000), the park and the Palace of Monserrate 200,000 (232,000) and the National Palace of Queluz 155,000 (160,000).
The reduction in visitors, which in the case of the Sintra mountains was also due to access restrictions caused by periods of bad weather and fire risk, resulted in revenue in 2025 of €40.1 million from ticket sales and a total of €49.5 million (€54.4 million in 2024).
"At the Pena National Palace, slots have been introduced, with maximum numbers of visitors per day, which means that the maximum numbers are more in line with what the monument can accommodate," he explained, adding that "improving the quality of visits and safeguarding the monument requires active management measures".
The strategy involves "looking at each national monument, each space managed by the company, and checking the maximum load capacities", how they will be "safeguarded and how" each monument will be adapted "to new visitor circuits and new audiences".
"Each national monument will have more than one visitor circuit and will have different visitor circuits according to the loads that each of them can accommodate, and this will introduce a “differentiating” visitor qualification," he stressed.
Thus, in the palaces of Sintra, Pena and Queluz, there will be "different visiting circuits" and "also different ways of experiencing the monument".
"We will no longer be so focused on the visit and will start to focus on the experience of the monument, and we will be able to present this to the public as early as Easter at the National Palace of Pena," said João Sousa Rego, adding that traditional visits, guided tours and immersive theatre related to the history of the monument will be available.
The different visits will make it possible to "attract cultural visitors who want to experience Sintra at a slower pace, get to know the palace in greater depth" and, in collaboration with "local and regional partners", both public and private, "offer distinctive cultural experiences", with an investment of €1.7 million.
On the other hand, the president of PSML argued that "visits must be integrated and interwoven with the territory," contributing to access to each monument "in a regular, balanced and sustainable manner" through the "integration of ticketing with public transport."
The company has therefore created a new ticketing website, with "different visiting solutions for each monument" and "between monuments in an integrated way", both its own and those of its partners, and also "integrated with public transport".
The measure could result in 35% of travel by public transport and, in a direct relationship, "reducing 35% of individual transport solutions" associated with group transport and partner visits "with collective transport".
In terms of investment, the official said that in 2026 the company plans to reinvest €13 million in the monuments and natural assets under its management.
In comparison, João Sousa Rego acknowledged that there has been "a sharp reduction in investment in recent years" since the Covid-19 pandemic, as can be seen in the "24% of total revenue" in 2025, 16% in 2024, and 10% in 2023, compared to 31% this year.
João Sousa Rego, 46, has served as chair of the board of directors of PSML since 2025. PSML was created in 2000, following UNESCO's classification of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra. Its shareholders are the Directorate-General for Treasury and Finance (representing the State), the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, Turismo de Portugal and the Sintra Municipal Council.
LFS/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
