Culture, Education, Science and Community

Tourism. New measures designed to improve the model and its compatibility with local residents, including an increase in the prices that tourist coaches pay to park in Barcelona.

The measure includes the new Zona Bus 4.0 project, designed to limit parking and stops made by tourist coaches, and should reinforce the management plan governing spaces with a large influx of tourists (EGA), boost the fight against illegal tourist lets and create an international network of urban destinations.

The goal is to achieve a new tourism model that has a positive impact in terms of projects for local residents and reduces the negative effects on mobility in certain parts of the city.

Barcelona gets an estimated 170,000 visitors a day on average, although not all of them spend the night in the city. This presence is heavily concentrated in certain areas. Some 150,000 people work in the tourist sector. The new government measure brings tourism management together for the first time into a single city model that takes into account all aspects linked to the visitor economy.

Specifically, the Zona Bus 4.0 project will have to be rolled out in line with the new tax by-laws, which on average are expected to quadruple the prices that tourist coaches pay to park in the city, rising from the current 20 euros a day to 80 euros a day.

12 strategic areas

12 strategic areas have been defined with 55 specific actions:

• Management of urban spaces (EGA)
• Mobility within the city: Zona Bus 4.0
• Coexistence, safety and prevention: campaign aimed at visitors.
• Tax and finance: creation of a fund for tourism to bring benefits for city residents (Fons ReCiutaT)
• Accommodation: review of the PEUAT and application of the urban planning regime for tourist lets
• Sustainability and resilience: promotion of water-saving measures given the drought in the city
• Digitalisation and innovation: digitalisation and promotion of tourism management
• Territorial strategy and tourism options offered: improvement of beaches and recovery of the bathing area at the Fòrum
• Knowledge: big data to analyse flows of tourists
• Economic development and return: subsidies for digitalising the sector
• Promotion, communication and welcome: new promotion strategy
• Community and governance: creation of an international network of urban destinations