In his first full CTiC meeting since being appointed, Donaire explained that the new indicators should help to measure other types of effects tourism has on the city, such as its ecological footprint. Traditional data, like volume of visitors, will become stable over time, once the package of measures announced by Barcelona City Council comes into effect. These include the elimination of tourist flats from 2028 and the reduction in the number of cruise terminals in the port (from 7 to 5).

Donaire presented CTiC members with the lines of work for 2026, based on limiting the growth of tourism, distributing flows and diversifying demand. The Commissioner also requested the CTiC’s support in putting together the Master Plan for High-Visitor Areas, which aims to reduce the impact of tourism on the busiest areas, and explained that, a decade after this advisory body was created, it must continue to participate actively in defining the city’s tourism model.

Also participating in the Council on Tourism and the City was the Deputy Mayor for the Economy, Housing, Finance and Tourism, Jordi Valls, who emphasised the existence of a ‘minimum consensus around tourism’, which was not present a decade ago. He also highlighted that the phenomenon of tourism cannot only be valued according to its economic impact, its social impact must be considered too, and public policy must not just focus on promotion. Valls invited the whole CTiC to work together with this consensus as a foundation ‘to shape the tourism of the next ten years’, through agreements that look beyond individual interests.