Tourism

A total of 29 of the projects will be managed by the districts, while the ICUB will get funds to develop 8 decentralised cultural programmes that will be held throughout the year and also designed with local people in mind.

The Barcelona City Council Government Commission has approved a new package of 48 projects that will be financed from the Tax on Stays in Tourist Establishments (IEET in Catalan). The total allocation of around €11.1 million will enable the Council to pursue its tourism management policies and increase the social return for Barcelona’s citizens. Out of the 48 projects approved, 29 have come directly from the city’s districts, while culture will account for another eight. What’s more, it shows managing tourism is once again one of the Council’s priorities when assigning these funds, with five projects this time specifically for places such as the Sagrada Família or Turó de la Rovira.

The €11.1 million are for the second package of projects funded by the IEET approved during the current term of office, coming after the €7.7 million agreed last November. All this helps develop the municipal strategy of fostering the social return from tourism for the city’s population, with the Climate Plan in schools being one of its main exponents. In fact, the Plan foresees the climate control for 170 schools in the city between 2024 and 2029 with green energy, which will be possible with investment from the tourist tax. However, it needs to be borne in mind that the example of the Climate Plan is possible thanks to Barcelona’s tourist charge, which supplements the IEET. In practice, this new package of 48 measures consolidates the trend of allocating up to 66% of the tourist tax to the Social Return Funds from Tourism. In other words, €7.5 million on top of the €100 million School Climate Plan.

Social and cultural projects

The 29 projects requested by the city’s 10 districts include investments in all of them, for example, the €220,000 that will go to the “Viu Montjuïc” project for revitalising the park with activities organised by all the facilities there, or the €250,000 for the “Culture in the Neighbourhood” project to promote free activities linked to the circus, sport, dance, theatre or music in the Besòs and Maresme neighbourhoods. However, the social return on tourism extends beyond this and also includes specific projects such as the development of literary spaces in Horta-Guinardó, the third edition of “Artistic Showcases” in Ciutat Vella, a circus marquee at the Circorts festival in Les Corts, restoration of the Sarrià viewing point in Sarrià – Sant Gervasi, activities for the Nou Barris festival or the Three Kings Parade in Sant Andreu’ s La Sagrera neighbourhood, among others.

Even though a good many of these projects already have a cultural background, the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB) will manage a further eight projects directly, mainly decentralised events held throughout the year. A good example is the €700,000 going to the “BCN X 10” project, which specifically seeks to project cultural projects and events that have come from the city’s neighbourhoods, €500,000 for the Guadalajara International Book Fair or the specific support for the Grec Festival, La Mercè 2024, the New Year’s Eve Festival or Llum BCN, the city’s Light Arts Festival.

Also worthy of mention are the five projects specifically to do with managing the impacts of tourism. That is the €275,000 going to develop the 2024 plan for family and children’s activities in the squares of the Gràcia district; €200,000 for drawing up an action plan for the Sagrada Família and its surroundings; nearly €78,000 to manage and improve the Turó de la Rovira anti-aircraft battery site; €60,000 to maintain the existing service for mediating between local residents and managers of tourist accommodation; and €100,000 to complete the plan for managing the city’s busiest areas, which the City Council is currently finalising.

Greater economic return

The other projects include €444,000 for carrying out activities that promote local commerce in the context of the America’s Cup, which will produce direct economic return for the city’s economy and stimulate job creation, as well as the €114,000 going towards easing access to Barcelona. The current package adopted by the Council Government Commission also includes, for example, transferring €3.66 million to the Barcelona Tourist Consortium to carry out the tasks entrusted to it, as set out in the 2012 Catalan Act that introduced the tourist tax.

Taxation from tourism is currently the City Council’s third major source of income, amounting to around €100 million a year with the entry into force this April of the latest rises in municipal taxes. Moreover, according to the latest Barcelona Tourism Observatory report, the 12 million people who stayed in Barcelona as tourists in 2023 spent approximately €9.6 billion in the city, which means direct employment for some 100,000 people. In both cases, these figures are higher than those recorded in 2019 and were achieved despite the total number of tourists being lower. In other words, in 2023, Barcelona managed to increase the economic return of tourism, recording record figures even though the total number of visitors was below the pre-COVID figures.

You can check out all the IEET-funded programmes by clicking  the following link.