In 2024, the visitor economy accounted for 11.3% of the all companies located in Barcelona, with 15,699 active companies, according to a report prepared by the Studies Department of Barcelona City Council’s Economic Promotion, Tourism, Institutional Relations and Sports Directorate. The sector saw a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, surpassing the growth of all sectors across the city as a whole (1.3%) and confirming its significance within Barcelona’s productive structure.

In terms of company size, microenterprises are the majority: 86.4% of companies have fewer than 10 employees. The share of small enterprises is also noteworthy: 11.4% of companies in the sector have between 10 and 49 employees, above the citywide average across sectors of 6.6%. Of these companies, 48.3% are less than 10 years old, six percentage points above the city average.

By districts, the highest percentage of economic stakeholders in the sector (31.0%) are based in Eixample, followed by Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (14.1%) and Ciutat Vella (13.2%). Meanwhile, Ciutat Vella is the district with the highest relative specialisation in the sector, with a specialisation index of 1.9. It is followed by Sants-Montjuïc and Gràcia (1.1 each), while Sarrià-Sant Gervasi has the lowest level of specialisation (0.7) in the visitor economy.

An analysis by census tracts shows a significant concentration of activity in Ciutat Vella, in the central part of Eixample, along the Diagonal Nord axis, in La Llacuna and the area around Glòries, as well as at Olympic Port, El Poble-sec and Montjuïc.

By subsector, food and beverage services account for almost half of the productive sector (49.8%), followed by other tourism-related services linked to culture, trade fairs and events (23.2%) and accommodation services (12.8%). The sector also includes vehicle hire, travel agencies and tour operators, and tourist transport.

A knowledge base for managing the sector

These data provide a detailed look at the visitor economy sector in Barcelona, both in terms of its significance within the productive sector and its business structure and geographic distribution. This information is key to understanding the sector’s evolution and to guiding the city’s tourism and economic management policies.