Tourism

City Councillor Xavier Marcé has proposed an agreement to improve training levels in tourism-related jobs. He made it during the 2nd TurEspaña Convention, which is being held from 3 to 5 October in Barcelona.

The Councillor for Tourism and Creative Industries, Xavier Marcé opened the second day of the TurEspaña Convention this morning with a speech analysing the challenges of tourism management. Speaking in an auditorium before some 200 representatives from the public and private tourist sectors, he explained Barcelona’s aim to lead the way in its commitment to sustainable and quality urban tourism. Tourism has to be managed from the perspective that the sector is not just a net contributor to wealth and jobs but also a fundamental vector of transformation, modernisation and progress for the city as a whole.

His proposed response to the crisis of the last few years was “an agreement for reskilling in the sector” that included “the world of training, from VT to specialisation, employers’ organisations, unions and which focuses on economic-promotion and quality job-creation policies on a national scale.”

On the other hand, he expressed the view that “city residents and visitors should make up a single citizenship”, for which purpose “new parameters of action, new promotion policies and new action criteria need to be generated”. Here he offered a few examples of tourism management where Barcelona had been a pioneer, such as the PEUAT, mobility planning and the application of a tourism tax, which is not managed, and nor does it have to be “managed as part of the bill for accommodation but rather a city bill”. According to the councillor, “this idea, that of a city bill, is conceptually necessary so tourists and city residents can establish a relationship enabling solutions to be found for many of the problems we need to tackle. The message for travellers comes not from hotels or the tourist sector, but from the city”.

He also highlighted the obligation “to move from commitment to action when it comes to sustainability” and insisted that “tourist policies” did not have to be “strictly promotional, the incorporation of big data is needed to find out more about visitors and select the ones most closely aligned with the city’s values”.