Short answer
Between the end of July and the end of October 2026, visitors sent 964 messages to Smart City Concierge in 79 conversations, mostly in the Coimbra region of Portugal. Half of the questions with a topic were about where to eat, but nightlife questions nearly tripled, from 5% in August to 14% in October. 31% of messages came in after 7 pm.
How much did visitors ask?
Between 31 July and 31 October 2026, Smart City Concierge received 964 messages from visitors in 79 different conversations. 97% came through WhatsApp and the rest through Telegram.
- August: 340 messages, 35 conversations.
- September: 279 messages, 23 conversations.
- October: 342 messages, 34 conversations.
A conversation has several messages: the first question, follow-ups (“and for dinner?”) and thanks. 505 messages had a clear topic; the rest were follow-ups, greetings or requests without a topic.
What did they ask about?
n = 505 messages with a topic, 79 conversations · source: Smart City Concierge
- Food
- 51%
- Sights
- 24%
- Nightlife
- 9%
- Accommodation
- 4%
- Getting around
- 4%
- Nature
- 3%
- Weather
- 2%
- Shopping
- 2%
- Beach
- 1%
Food is the clear leader: 47 of the 79 conversations asked where to eat. What to see comes next, with a quarter of the messages with a topic.
Nightlife is growing
August n = 164 · September n = 149 · October n = 191
- August
- 5%
- September
- 5%
- October
- 14%
In August and September, nightlife (bars, concerts, fado, what to do after dinner) accounted for 5% of questions with a topic. In October it rose to 14%, almost three times as much. In Coimbra alone, in October, it reached 18%.
It is still too early to say why. The return of university classes and shorter days are hypotheses to follow in the coming months.
When did they ask?
n = 964 messages · Lisbon time
- Morning (8 am to 12 pm)
- 21%
- Afternoon (12 pm to 7 pm)
- 40%
- Evening (7 pm to 12 am)
- 31%
- Night (12 am to 8 am)
- 8%
31% of messages came in after 7 pm, and the busiest hour was 10 pm. The evening share also grew over the months: 23% of August messages came in after 7 pm, against about 35% in September and October.
Friday is the busiest day (24% of messages), and Friday to Sunday accounts for 57% of all messages.
Where were they?
When the city is known, almost half of the messages were about Coimbra (49%). Next come Vila Nova de Poiares (11%), Figueira da Foz (6%), Braga and Lisbon (3% each).
We only know the city for 51% of messages, and only reliably from 11 October. These figures are an indication, not an exact picture.
What does this tell destinations?
The most common question is where to eat. The fastest growing one is what to do at night, and it arrives when the tourist office has already closed.
- Food is the most requested topic, but also the best served. Maps and review platforms already answer “where can I have dinner near here” well.
- Nightlife is the fastest growing demand and the one with the most scattered information. Bar hours, concerts and fado change every week and are rarely in one place.
- A third of questions arrive after 7 pm, and more than half at the weekend. A messaging channel answers at those hours; a front desk or a static website does not.
What are the limits of this data?
- It is a pilot sample. 79 conversations are enough to see trends, not to draw definitive percentages.
- Almost everything is in Portuguese. 98% of messages with an identified language are in Portuguese; international demand is not yet represented.
- The city is only reliable from 11 October. Before that, the log only kept the city the visitor wrote.
- It may include team tests, especially in August. We cannot separate them with full certainty.
- Classification is automatic. Each message is classified by an AI model (category, zone, language), without message by message human review.
- Aggregated, anonymous data. We do not read or publish the text of the messages, only counts.
Do you manage a destination?
See how Smart City Concierge measures demand in Coimbra.
Frequently asked questions
How many people are behind these numbers?
79 distinct conversations, with 964 messages in total, between 31 July and 31 October 2026.
Why is almost everything in Portuguese?
The Coimbra demo mostly reaches a Portuguese audience. Demand from foreign visitors is not yet represented in this sample.
How are the questions classified?
Each message is automatically classified by an AI model by category, zone and language. Reports only use aggregated counts, never the text of the messages.
Sources
- Smart City Concierge, conversation events, 31 July to 31 October 2026 (964 messages, 79 conversations). Aggregated query on 8 November 2026.
- Smart City Concierge, conversation events in Coimbra, October 2026 (170 messages, 19 conversations).