Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Park Güell received 4.4 million visitors last year, a 6% increase on the previous year, consolidating it as one of the city’s main attractions. Yet the number of local people visiting the park with local resident cards (500,000 holders) rose by 37% and the number of city people accessing the part with the Gaudir Més programme doubled to reach 164,000.

Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (BSM) has been regulating admission to Park Güell since 2013, the goal being to preserve this iconic city space and ensure it is used properly and in harmony with the uses that locals people and schools make of it. Initially, access was only regulated for the monumental part of the park, but in 2020 this was extended to the cover the whole site, reducing the overall capacity from 9 million visitors to 4.5 million.

In parallel, Park Güell has adopted various actions and campaigns to promote the purchase of tickets in advance via internet and help towards the orderly access and flow of people at the park. In 2023, 83% of tickets were sold in advance, peaking at 95% in the summer months. Using its own channels, the park provides information on ticket availability in real time to avoid unnecessary journeys to the site, improving the visitor experience and striving to look after the surroundings.

Local people and schools as two priority users

Since regulated access to the park was introduced, local people in the six surrounding neighbourhoods (La Salut, Vallcarca-Penitents, El Coll, Can Baró, Baix Guinardó and El Carmel), as well as pupils at the schools in and around the park (Baldiri Reixac, Reina Elisenda Virolai, Jesuïtes de Gràcia, Turó del Cargol and Escola Montseny) make everyday use of the site as a space for recreation, sport and coexistence. Local people have access to exclusive use during specific time bands, as well as a card that provides access during general opening hours.

Visits from schools have practically doubled compared to the previous year. Nearly 60,000 students from more than 2,600 school groups took part in the education programme “Park Güell and Schools”, which is aimed at bringing Gaudí’s work closer to the various education stages and is open to schools in the European Union. Some 85% of visits adopted the free and open-access model, while 15% were conducted with guides.

In addition, last year was the first time that Park Güell was one of the sites to host the STEAM meetings organised by BSM and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech to promote scientific vocations. Over 600 children in their fifth or sixth year at ten primary schools took part, including three schools from the neighbourhoods surrounding Park Güell.

In parallel, during the course of the year, over 9,000 people took part in different cultural activities based around the historical and heritage value of Gaudí’s work, organised with the collaboration of the MUHBA.

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, Park Güell is one of Gaudí’s works that attracts the most visitors. A quarter of visitors go to the park as they regard it as one of Barcelona’s iconic spaces; a further 22% do so as they want to discover Gaudí’s architecture. The most common visitor profile is of somebody between the ages of 25 and 24, visiting from abroad.