Tourism
Tourism is one of Barcelona's most important activities, and it is a priority for the municipal government, because of its contribution to the city's economy and the various effects it generates on urban dynamics.
In recent decades, Barcelona has become a tourist city. An estimated 30 million tourists visit annually, in a city with a resident population of little more than 1.6 million. This gives a fair idea of the city's power of attraction, while also showing the scale of the visitor economy's impact, representing around 14% of the city’s GDP and employing over 150,000 people.
The sustained growth of this activity, with the parenthesis caused by the Covid-19 crisis, is also a cause of citizen debate, in terms of its sustainability. In response, the City Council has promoted the Tourism and City Council, a consultative and participatory body on tourism, and has produced successive strategic plans and programmes in order to manage how tourism fits into city life, maximise its return and favour promotion geared towards serving the city's interests.
- To govern tourism, setting the rules of the game to achieve a balance in the city.
- To ensure the destination’s inalienable sustainability and to do so by adopting a broad approach, incorporating other fundamental criteria into environmental issues such as job quality and the strength of business relations with the local economic community.
- To promote the best social return from the generated economic activity, by activating multiplying effects in order to extend this to the city as a whole
Actions
- The Government Measure Creating new imagery and content to improve the mobility and sustainability of tourism.
- Barcelona Strategic Tourism Plan for 2020.
- Tourism and City Council.
- Special Urban Development Plan for Tourist Accommodation (PEUAT).
- Shock Plan for Combating Illegal Tourist-Use Housing (HUT).
- Networking with tourist cities to find common solutions.
- Tourist mobility strategy. Reorganising the mobility of discretionary coaches and Bus-Turistic routes.
