barcelona tourism strategy

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Responsible and sustainable tourism

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The Barcelona Declaration is a list of pledges the city has made for responsible and sustainable tourism. It was presented to the International Conference on Sustainable Tourism for implementation under the framework of the New Urban Agenda (Barcelona, 2017).

Since 2011 Barcelona has had the Biosphere responsible tourism certificate in line with the international criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

This is a Turisme de Barcelona (tourist board) programme that brings together various companies offering products for tourists that suggest places to go and services that allow visitors to enjoy the city in a sustainable way.

Accessible places, adapted hotels and barrier-free transport. This is a tourist board initiative to help people with disabilities get all the information they need on what the city offers to help them enjoy their visit.

The Strategic Tourism Plan for 2020 makes destination Barcelona’s sustainability a priority and indispensable goal.

Barcelona has been ramping up its efforts to fight against illegal accommodation and has launched a website where local residents and visitors can verify their accommodation has a permit.

Close to Barcelona there is a host of options for you to enjoy your leisure time, the local culture and nature. A rich and diverse region located between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean sea, with over 100 kilometres of coastline and a stunning cultural heritage.

It's perfectly possible to enjoy the city without disturbing local residents' peace and quiet; everyone can get along together with mutual respect. The noise map shows noise levels by street section and is a tool to help check the city'sacoustic status.

Barcelona, a leader in sustainable tourism

Barcelona wants its residents and visitors to enjoy the many attractions that the city offers in a balanced way that respects the environment. So it promotes a model of tourism based on respect for the city's economic, social, environmental and cultural resources. As a result, and because it is always innovating, Barcelona has established itself as a tourist destination committed to sustainability, with responsibly managed tourism and a cross-cutting strategy which seeks to ensure it is a model that will endure well into the future.

Barcelona is...

Responsible.

For promoting tourism that shares environmental responsibility between visitors and residents, Barcelona has been accredited with Biosphere certification as a responsible tourist destination.

The cultural heritage, architecture and creativity of its artists make Barcelona an exceptional city.

Barcelona is a pioneering city in terms of its architectural adaptation of public spaces for everyone, as well as in proposing improvements for the elderly and people with reduced mobility.

Eco-friendly

Barcelona promotes green means of transport for both residents and visitors alike, including cycling, electric vehicles and public transport with low CO2 emissions.

Sustainable

A city with a top-quality model of tourism that fosters the potential of each and every one of its neighbourhoods.

A city open to everyone, with a wide range of possibilities for tourism related to social responsibility projects.

With a spirit of commitment to the environment, Barcelona believes in renewable energy, recycling and the implementation of measures to save both water and other resources.

The city's green spaces are one of its most attractive features. Montjuïc Park and Barcelona's green lung, the Collserola range, are examples of the perfect combination of nature and city.

Barcelona is within everyone’s reach

Flat and perfect for walking round, as well as being committed to easy accessiblity, Barcelona is a city that invites you to lose yourself in its streets and different neighbourhoods. On top of that, there are many eco-friendly ways of getting around and discovering the city.

The Bus Turístic (tourist bus) and Barcelona Walking Tours are a great way to enjoy sustainable tourism.

The city is also a pioneer in welcoming visitors with special needs.   Its urban transport network and public spaces are all adapted to this kind of visitor.

Innovative and eco-friendly tourism

Barcelona is a city made to be experienced from within: it allows visitors to mingle with its residents and enjoy its intense identity and artistic and cultural dynamism. It is a city that values and cares for its cultural and architectural heritage but which also opens it up to the people.

And Barcelona is also a clean city with Biosphere clean-city accreditation. It promotes separated waste management, low greenhouse gas emission transport, it is committed to renewable energy and takes care of its green spaces and beaches.

From museums adapted for blind people to visits in sign language,, Barcelona commitment to accessibility.

This is a building which has been renovated using bioconstruction material which promotes sustainability and environmental education of the general public.

This association brings together hotels and organisations in the Fòrum area that share values of social responsibility, environmental issues and cultural development.

This is an integrated travel card that helps visitors get around, using a single card for the different means of public transport.

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Improving and distributing tourism evenly with the Barcelona strategy

13/05/2022 14:55 h

The 21 projects outlined represent a range of actions with a broad geographical reach, focusing particularly on the Besòs, Collserola, the coastline and Montjuïc. Other cross-cutting action is also planned to evenly distribute tourism and prompt innovation in going digital, sustainability and mobility.

• Coastline: in line with the goal of the green and sustainable transition, action here is aimed at making beaches more natural, improving accessibility and safety and adapting them to climate change. The project to improve the beaches and the bathing area at the Fòrum entails an investment of 4 million euros.
• Collserola and Besòs: with an investment of 5,479,750 euros, the idea is to add vitality to the Parc Natural de Collserola and the riverbank of the Besòs through environmental recovery and the historical recovery of different tourist attractions.
• Montjuïc: with a budget of 10,315,000 euros, the plan here is to boost this large public park, improve accessibility and attract visitors linked to culture, sport and the natural environment.
• Sustainable mobility: action here is designed to integrate uses and tourist mobility into the city’s mobility model, with a budget of 8,492,320 euros to help fund three projects.
• New evenly distributed options: the goal is to add more tourism options with new points of competitive interest to help provide balance in a polycentric city. With a budget of 9,789,941 euros, up to six projects are planned in this sphere.
• Innovation: the five projects in this field have a combined budget of 10,466,001 euros. A series of actions are planned to comprehensively help the sector go digital, with a broader vision embracing the private and public ecosystem linked to the visitor economy. Action here will be implemented by the Barcelona Tourism Consortium.

Fifty million euros in investment

The call by the state plan for sustainability in tourist destinations is aimed at local organisations and entails funding of 1.9 billion euros between now and 2023. Of this amount, 194 million corresponds to Catalonia, with a maximum of 50 million euros available for Barcelona. As major urban destinations, the Catalan capital and Madrid are in a category of their own due to their singularity.

Once the strategy has been put forward for the call, it will be evaluated by the Secretary of State for Tourism and the Government of Catalonia.

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New Destination Barcelona Tourism Marketing Strategy

Prioritises sustainable tourism, and sets guidelines for promoting business competitiveness and ensuring the maximum social and economic return.

Barcelona has launched the process of formulating and developing the destination Barcelona tourism marketing strategy which is intended to update the marketing plan in line with the new reality and the new challenges faced by the tourism industry. The momentum for this new strategy comes from the collaboration between Barcelona City Council and the Chamber of Commerce, as members of the Turisme de Barcelona Consortium, and it is supported by Barcelona Provincial Council.

The strategy is based on five clearly-identified objectives. The first is ensuring the sustainability of the destination. At the same time, it is essential to encourage tourism to be competitive while ensuring the maximum social return. To achieve this the plan will stress the importance of analysing source markets in order to focus on segments, activities and practices which generate value. The attractions, products and services on offer must be adapted in accordance with the new objectives. The third objective of the plan is to promote business cooperation by fostering those activities, products and services which help ensure that effect of tourism is increased significantly in strategic economic sectors. The connection between the visitor's budget and reinforcing other economic activities with added value is considered key, such as in the case of business tourism. Finally, the marketing strategy is focused on promoting management of the Destination and including all public and private agents projecting the image of the city.

At the presentation event, Turisme de Barcelona's managing director, Joan Torrella, gave a brief chronological overview of the city's tourism development, recalling that "Barcelona and tourism are inseparable". Torrella considers that "the challenge is no longer managing tourism in the city, but managing the city with tourism. We cannot continue to think about promotion separately from management, we must sit down and work together", he concluded.

The process for developing and applying the Tourism Marketing Strategy will be divided into four phases: diagnosis, positioning of the destination, operating plan and implementation, and it is set to be fully operational in the first half of 2019.

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Compendium of data on tourist activity in Destination Barcelona in 2023

Key figures

Study on profile and habits of tourists during 2023

• Job market and salaries of the tourist activity in Destination Barcelona 2022 Report (CAT) Summary (EN) https://www.observatoriturisme.barcelona/sites/default/files/2022_salaris_destacats_0.png

Monthly results report on profile and habits of tourists in Destination Barcelona

The plane, the most used means of transportation to reach both the city and the region

The OTB presents the monthly report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona

1 out of 2 tourists visit the Destination Barcelona attracted by the sea and the water

The OTB presents the monographic report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination...

27.3% of bank card spending in Barcelona city in May was international

The latest tourism activity data in Destination Barcelona have been updated - May 2024 edition

The Observatori del Turisme a Barcelona: ciutat i regió (OTB) is the working platform for statistical information on tourism, knowledge and market intelligence in the city of Barcelona and the rest of Barcelona region.

• Sustainability

Can Barcelona Fix Its Love-Hate Relationship With Tourists After the Pandemic?

B efore last year, Martí Cusó didn’t like to linger in the streets of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, the neighborhood where he has lived all his life. It was impossible to sit on a bench or play with his kids outside without being engulfed by tourists . Shuffling behind tour guides, gazing upward at the architecture or pausing abruptly to buy souvenirs from street hawkers, the visitors were often a nuisance to locals navigating the streets. Some zoomed through the area’s narrow medieval passages on scooters and taxi bikes. Many crowded the bar terraces, which had gradually replaced the local amenities that residents once relied on. “Tourism had eaten up all of the public space and relegated us locals to a role of extras on a set,” says Cusó, 31, a teacher and member of the Gothic Quarter residents’ association.

Despite residents’ protests, the number of tourists flooding into Barcelona soared over the past two decades, with nearly 12 million visiting the city of 1.6 million in 2019. But when COVID-19 hit, forcing Spain to close its borders to tourists, locals reclaimed the city center. “We saw scenes we hadn’t seen in a long time. The squares that are normally full of terrazas and tourists were occupied by kids playing, or families, or people sunbathing,” Cusó says. “Now we’re scared we’re going to lose that again.”

E.U. leaders have agreed to allow vaccinated tourists to visit European countries this summer without quarantining. News of the plan prompted an immediate 47% surge in searches for flights to Europe, according to travel analytics firm Hopper. In Barcelona, where Americans make up the largest group of foreign visitors, the city hopes to welcome 1 million tourists this summer. On May 29, the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí’s iconic cathedral , reopened to visitors.

Read more: How Europe Transformed Itself for Tourism, and Why It Backfired

Across Europe’s many tourism hot spots , authorities are walking a tightrope as the COVID-19 recovery gathers steam. The pandemic laid bare how a rush for tourism dollars has left downtowns dependent on the industry. Officials are desperate to revive the sector, which has suffered mass layoffs and normally contributes heavily to local economies across Europe. (In Barcelona, it makes up 15% of GDP.) At the same time, locals are pressuring city governments to use the disruption of COVID-19 to impose new rules on the industry. In March, Italy’s government said it would ban cruise ships from entering the center of Venice, while Amsterdam is pressing ahead with a plan to curb sex work in the city center and relocate its famous red-light district.

In Barcelona, officials have launched a strategy to transform post-pandemic tourism in a way that satisfies both residents and visitors. Under the progressive mayor Ada Colau, Barcelona in January announced a plan that would effectively ban homeowners from renting out individual rooms to tourists on platforms like Airbnb, which would make the city’s already tight controls on tourist accommodation some of the strictest in the world . In a bid to revive central areas and reduce tourism’s group, in April, the city announced a $21 million plan to buy empty commercial spaces and fill them with businesses catering to locals . A new app and crowd-monitoring system aims to divert tourists to avoid congested parts of town. “We’ve had a break from tourists for a year to think about how we want to deal with them,” says Xavier Marcé, Barcelona’s councillor for tourism and creative industries.

The city is also changing how it sells itself. On May 17, the tourism board launched an ad campaign, “Barcelona like never before,” touting cleaner, calmer streets. Running in English and Castilian Spanish, authorities say the ads target “high-quality” tourists who come to participate in the local lifestyle, and also encourage locals to visit areas and attractions normally overrun by tourists.

Locals are skeptical that the city’s plans can help them preserve their newfound ownership of the city. But Marcé insists Barcelona can improve for residents and welcome tourists back at the same time: “I can’t put up walls around the city. I can’t move the Sagrada Familia. But there’s a lot of things I can do.”

Rebalancing the relationship between locals and tourists

Barcelona has developed a love-hate relationship with tourists in the three decades since hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics, which kickstarted the industry’s rapid growth in the city. Almost all of the city’s major attractions are in the historic center, meaning that tourists were concentrated in a few neighborhoods. Its cruise port and proximity to seaside towns attracted hordes of day-trippers, who spent less money and flooded the city center. An influx of study-abroad students and “lifestyle migrants”—who come for a few months or years at time to work remotely—compounded the issue, says Claudio Milano, a professor in the social anthropology department of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “The city has grown to be seen as a place of leisure.”

Rents climbed and public services, such as waste management, came under pressure. Limits on new hotel construction and short-term home rentals, and rule changes like a ban on tour groups using electric scooters, haven’t allayed residents concerns. Tourism became a lightning rod for anticapitalist and antiglobalization sentiments that had grown in Spain following the recession of 2008–2009, with groups of local protesters vandalizing tourist buses with slogans like “tourism kills neighborhoods.”

“Before the pandemic, coexistence between locals and tourists, especially young people and those who come to get drunk, was very conflictive,” says Antonio Martínez Gómez, president of the residents’ association for the Raval, another central Barcelona neighborhood.

But the pandemic has also shown just how much cities like Barcelona rely on tourists. More than 200 businesses in the city center folded between March and September 2020. “Lots of people fell into unemployment, and families are suffering because of the lack of income,” Martínez Gómez says. “The recovery in tourism will be good for the local economy. But we need to find a balance.”

Alok Lahad, who runs a souvenir shop near the Sagrada Familia, says Barcelona “is dead without tourists.” He has lived in the city for 25 years and used to be a jeweler, but converted his store after the 2008 financial crisis, selling models of the cathedral and nearby Parc Güell, as well as T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of Barcelona’s soccer team. The business has been mostly shuttered since March 2020, and Lahad says he has burned through his savings to pay rent and bills. “There’s a very big possibility I’ll lose the business if tourists don’t come back this summer,” he says. “The locals who criticize tourism don’t seem to understand that the people who are working in the industry are not foreigners, not tourists. They eat, drink, go to school and give business to the local nontourist businesses. They’re locals too.”

Officials say the pandemic might help rebalance the relationship between locals and tourists by starting afresh. “Without this year, it’d be like entering a wheel and it’s spinning and you can’t stop it,” says Marian Muro, who began her job as director of Barcelona’s embattled tourism board two weeks before the pandemic started. “We’ve spent a year just thinking.” Where the city was previously reacting to the problems tourism created, she argues, it is can now plan strategic investment in and promotion of the industry to exert some control over it.

Authorities’ main goal is alleviating pressure on the city center. Tourist buses will take a new route, and the Check Barcelona app will warn visitors of already busy attractions, beaches and parking lots. The app and marketing materials will highlight alternative neighborhoods, such as Poblenou to the east, a hub for tech; northern Gràcia, for its food scene; and the nearby wine region of Penedès.

But officials also want to revitalize locals’ relationship with their city. In June, the Rambla, the pedestrianized shopping street normally brimming with tourists, will hold a two-week festival encouraging local residents to reconnect with retailers and restaurants. The city has earmarked a fifth of its city recovery funds to “diversify and balance” neighborhoods, buying up some of the 5,323 vacant commercial spaces in the city to rent to local-friendly businesses at below-market rates. Paris credits a similar program in the 2000s with saving local amenities and stemming the rise of chain stores in its center.

Muro says her long-term goal is to bring different classes of visitors to Barcelona. That includes bigger spenders, such as Russian tourists, who spend almost 30% more during their visit than the average visitor. But she also wants people attracted by Barcelona’s culture and customs more than sunbathing and excessive drinking. “In the center, there are restaurants where I wouldn’t eat,” she says. “And if I wouldn’t eat there, then neither would the kind of tourists we’re pursuing.”

A more equitable and sustainable model for tourism

European governments are under substantial pressure to revive their pandemic-ravaged travel industries. International visitors spent $619 billion in Europe in 2019. That figure fell by 64% in 2020, and about 3.6 million people lost tourism jobs.

Governments across the region are now pushing to relax travel restrictions to allow a rebound this summer. But officials in Spain, Italy and Greece say they will use the recovery to make tourism more environmentally and socially sustainable. At a local level, the key is a more equal distribution of the industry, not just geographically, but also of the wealth it creates, says Marcé, the Barcelona tourism councillor. “We need to widen the frame. It can’t just be hotels and restaurants and luxury brands in the center of town, but also local actors that have a lot to offer visitors but maybe aren’t part of powerful lobbies that have set the agenda in tourism.” Stores selling daily necessities, cultural creators and local sports venues should also benefit, he adds.

Cusó, the Gothic Quarter resident, doubts the city’s plans will improve the lives of Barcelona residents. The only way to do that, he says, is to stop promoting the city and reduce the number of tourists who come. “I wanted the government to use this opportunity to rethink a new model for the city,” he says, arguing that the city should spend recovery funds to create new jobs in public health and education. “What they’re doing now is just an attempt to revert to the situation we had in 2019.”

Even if it is, Marcé doesn’t expect Barcelona’s tourism to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, amid varying rates of vaccine rollouts and restriction easing around the world. Marcé says that time will allow the city’s strategy to bear fruit. “We think we can have a very different situation,” he says. “To find out, we need tourists to come back.”

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Tourism in Barcelona - statistics & facts

Barcelona’s main tourist attractions, a place for every type of visitor, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Number of overnight visitors in Barcelona 2018-2023, by accommodation type

Tourist tax in Barcelona 2024, by accommodation type

Tourism employment in Barcelona 2023, by industry

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Most visited tourist attractions in Barcelona 2022

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Most common origin countries among foreign hotel guests in Barcelona 2023

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• Premium Statistic Quarterly trade, transport & lodging GDP in Catalonia 2017-2023
• Premium Statistic Employment in tourism in Catalonia 2010-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of trips made by local travelers in Catalonia 2015-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic trips to Catalonia 2015-2023
• Premium Statistic International tourism volume in Catalonia 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Spanish cities with the largest number of international hotel guests 2023
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Quarterly trade, transport & lodging GDP in Catalonia 2017-2023

Contribution of the trade, transport, and accommodation industries to the gross domestic product in Catalonia, Spain from 1st quarter 2017 to 4th quarter 2023 (in billion euros)

Employment in tourism in Catalonia 2010-2023

Number of employees in hospitality and travel agencies in Catalonia, Spain from 2010 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

Number of trips made by local travelers in Catalonia 2015-2023

Number of trips taken by local tourists in Catalonia, Spain from 2015 to 2023 (in millions)

Number of domestic trips to Catalonia 2015-2023

Number of trips to Catalonia taken by domestic tourists in Spain from 2015 to 2023 (in millions)

International tourism volume in Catalonia 2000-2023

Number of international tourists in Catalonia, Spain from 2000 to 2023 (in millions)

Spanish cities with the largest number of international hotel guests 2023

Most visited cities by international overnight tourists in Spain in 2023 (in 1,000s)

Spanish tourist destinations with the highest hotel investments 2023

Leading hotel markets in Spain 2023, based on capital invested (in million euros)

Tourism volume

• Basic Statistic Leading European city tourism destinations 2019-2022, by number of bed nights
• Premium Statistic Number of hotel guests in Barcelona 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Most common origin countries among foreign hotel guests in Barcelona 2023
• Premium Statistic Passenger traffic at El Prat Airport 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Cruise passenger traffic at Barcelona's port 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Ferry passenger traffic at Barcelona's port 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Main means of travel for tourists in Barcelona 2017-2023
• Premium Statistic Opinions on tourism as the main problem in Barcelona 2006-2023

Leading European city tourism destinations 2019-2022, by number of bed nights

Leading city tourism destinations in Europe from 2019 to 2022, by number of bed nights (in millions)

Number of hotel guests in Barcelona 1990-2023

Number of tourists in hotels in Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

Leading countries of origin among international tourists who stayed at hotels in Barcelona, Spain in 2023 (in 1,000s)

Passenger traffic at El Prat Airport 2000-2023

Number of air passengers at the Barcelona-El Prat Airport, Spain from 2000 to 2023 (in millions)

Cruise passenger traffic at Barcelona's port 1990-2023

Number of cruise passengers in the Port of Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

Ferry passenger traffic at Barcelona's port 2000-2023

Number of ferry passengers at the Port of Barcelona, Spain from 2000 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

Main means of travel for tourists in Barcelona 2017-2023

Distribution of tourists in Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023, by means of transport

Opinions on tourism as the main problem in Barcelona 2006-2023

Share of population in Barcelona, Spain who considered tourism to be the main problem of the city from 2006 to 2023

Visitor profile

• Premium Statistic Number of overnight visitors in Barcelona 2018-2023, by accommodation type
• Premium Statistic Tourists in Barcelona 2000-2023, by travel reason
• Premium Statistic Per capita spend of visitors in Barcelona 2023, by type of expense
• Premium Statistic Main tourist activities in Barcelona 2023
• Premium Statistic Most visited tourist attractions in Barcelona 2022
• Premium Statistic Most popular types of websites for planning travels to Barcelona 2023

Number of tourists in commercial accommodation establishments in Barcelona, Spain from 2018 to 2023, by type (in 1,000s)

Tourists in Barcelona 2000-2023, by travel reason

Distribution of tourists in Barcelona, Spain from 2000 to 2023, by travel purpose

Per capita spend of visitors in Barcelona 2023, by type of expense

Average expenditure of tourists in Barcelona, Spain in 2023, by category (in euros)

Main tourist activities in Barcelona 2023

Most popular activities among tourists in Barcelona, Spain in 2023

Leading tourist attractions in Barcelona, Spain in 2022, based on number of visitors (in 1,000s)

Most popular types of websites for planning travels to Barcelona 2023

Most used online platforms to plan a trip to Barcelona, Spain in 2023

Hotel market

• Premium Statistic Number of hotels in Barcelona 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of hotels in Barcelona 2023, by star category
• Basic Statistic Leading hotels in Barcelona 2023, by traveler ratings
• Premium Statistic Hotel capacity in Barcelona 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Hotel overnights in Barcelona 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Hotel bed occupancy in Barcelona 1990-2023
• Premium Statistic Monthly ADR of hotel establishments in Barcelona 2021-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourist tax in Barcelona 2024, by accommodation type

Number of hotels in Barcelona 1990-2023

Number of hotel establishments in Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023

Number of hotels in Barcelona 2023, by star category

Number of hotel establishments open in Barcelona, Spain as of December 2023, by star rating

Leading hotels in Barcelona 2023, by traveler ratings

Best-rated hotels in Barcelona, Spain in 2023, based on traveler scores

Hotel capacity in Barcelona 1990-2023

Number of hotel rooms in Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023

Hotel overnights in Barcelona 1990-2023

Number of overnight stays in hotels in Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

Hotel bed occupancy in Barcelona 1990-2023

Bed occupancy rate of hotels in Barcelona, Spain from 1990 to 2023

Monthly ADR of hotel establishments in Barcelona 2021-2023

Average daily rate of hotels and hostels in Barcelona, Spain from January 2021 to December 2023 (in euros)

Tourist tax in Barcelona, Spain as of April 2024, by type of accommodation (in euros per person and night)

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Barcelona ‘Call to Action’ Maps the Way Forward for Tourism

• All Regions, Europe
• 27 Oct 2021

Tourism has united around a common Call to Action, outlining a shared vision for the sustainable and inclusive future of the sector. On the second day of the Future of Tourism World Summit in Barcelona (26-27 October), UNWTO was joined by fellow UN agencies, government Ministers, and public and private sector leaders, in agreeing to seize the opportunity to restart and recover better from the impacts of the pandemic. The Call to Action brings together the solutions and plans put forward during the two-day summit, recognizing the importance of transforming tourism ‘for people, for planet and for prosperity’.

‘Tourism must lead the way’

Clear leadership to secure the financing necessary to build a more sustainable future

As world leaders get ready to meet in Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), it states that “ tourism must lead the way in adapting, becoming more sustainable and transitioning towards net-zero growth ”. Among the key players backing the plan are UNWTO’s fellow the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), along with leading businesses, destinations and governments.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili underscored the need for “ clear leadership to secure the financing necessary to build a more sustainable future ”. He added that “the Barcelona Call to Action signals our sector’s readiness to lead the way, face up to and overcome challenges and build a better tourism for all”.

SDGs as reference for growth

The Call to Action was announced at the close of the two-day summit. Organized by the Advanced Leadership Foundation, and the Incyde Foundation of the Chambers of Commerce of Spain, with the support of UNWTO, this was the first major event focused on looking ahead held since the start of the pandemic. Its focus aligned with many of the key priorities of UNWTO’s work, most notably an emphasis on securing more and more effective funding to help transform the sector, as well as on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The ten-point Call to Action includes a commitment to more fully integrating tourism into national and local action plans, ensuring the sector is engaged in issues such as housing, the use of public space and the use of infrastructure. It also highlights the need to ensure the sector’s restart and future growth adhere to the principles of the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and are aligned with the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Related Links

• Download the news release in PDF
• Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
• UNWTO 24th General Assembly
• The Barcelona Call to Action

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Why are Barcelona residents protesting against tourists?

Thousands of people joined an anti-tourism protest in Barcelona amid rising housing costs.

Videos of Barcelona residents shooting water pistols at tourists at a city restaurant have been widely shared on social media. And it was not fake news. Residents in Spain’s most visited city did not mean to harm tourists, but they are conveying a message: “Tourists, go home.”

It was the latest in the series of protests against mass tourism in the country, which attracted 85 million visitors in 2023.

Barcelona , home to beautiful beaches and the world-famous Barcelona football club, attracts millions of tourists every year. But the record flow of visitors has impacted the housing sector, pushing rental prices higher and out of reach for some city residents.

Here’s more about Barcelona’s anti-tourism protests.

What happened?

• Around 2,800 anti-tourism protesters marched in Barcelona on Saturday, July 6, according to the police.
• Videos making the rounds on social media showed protesters carrying banners with slogans including “Tourists go home”, and “Barcelona is not for sale”.
• They were also seen using colourful plastic water pistols to spray water on the visitors in the tourist district of Las Ramblas.
• Protesters additionally cordoned off restaurants and hotels in the northeastern coastal city using red tape.

Why are there anti-tourism protests in Barcelona?

• Soaring housing costs are at the heart of the protesters’ concerns. According to property website Idealista, rent prices in Barcelona have increased by 18 percent over the past year.
• Over the past decade, rent rose by 68 percent and the cost of buying a house increased by 38 percent, making the city unliveable for locals. Apartments for tourists, including online rental sites, have strained the local housing market.
• To combat this, Barcelona’s Mayor Jaume Collboni, a Socialist, announced on June 21 that more than 10,000 tourist apartment rentals will be banned by 2028.
• This was not the first time a Barcelona mayor took such action. In 2017, former Mayor Ada Colau also introduced “anti-tourism policies” .
• Protesters are also opposed to a tourism-based economy, which they argue is making them poorer and also reliant on visitors.
• This is not the first time tourism has been highlighted as a problem in Spain. In April, 57,000 demonstrators marched in protest against tourism in the Canary Islands , the Spanish archipelago around 2,200km (1,370 miles) southwest of Barcelona, off the west coast of Africa.
• Spain’s Palma de Mallorca and Malaga also saw anti-tourism protests in May and June, respectively.

Who is protesting in Barcelona?

• 180 local organisations have come together to plan the protests.
• They are spearheaded by Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turistic (ABDT), or the Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth.
• “The demonstration was the product of years of grassroots work, progressively in alliance with more and more organisations,” ABDT told Al Jazeera in a written statement.
• ABDT said that it has not had communication with Barcelona authorities since the protest, and is awaiting a response.

What are the demands of Barcelona’s anti-tourism protest?

ABDT’s website set forth 13 proposals on Saturday, including:

• Withdrawal of plans to expand infrastructure in the airport alongside a progressive reduction of the number of cruise terminals in the Port of Barcelona until their elimination.
• Elimination of licensed and illegal tourist apartments and reduction of accommodation in the city.
• Decommodification of public space and limits on large events.
• Protection of local commerce, improvement of work and wage conditions for tourism sector workers and stopping public funding of tourism.
• Making the tourism industry pay for its exploitation of public services.
• Transformation of part of the remaining tourism sector, but oriented to the necessary leisure of the population.

How many tourists visit Barcelona?

• Around 12 million tourists visited Barcelona in 2023, according to local authorities.
• After France, Spain received the second-highest number of tourists in 2024, with 85 million foreigners visiting the country, according to the National Statistics Institute.
• The most visited region was Catalonia, which attracted 18 million tourists last year. The population of Catalonia is 7.6 million, with 1.6 million of the residents living in Barcelona.
• What brings tourists to Barcelona are the totems of Catalan culture, ranging from architectural attractions such as cathedrals and basilicas to parks, beaches and markets.

In which other countries have residents discouraged tourism?

• ‘Don’t come to Paris’:  Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics set to start in late July, locals from the French city are taking to social media to dissuade tourists from visiting during the sporting event. The reasons they cited included hotel price hikes, tourist scams, pickpocketing and the fact that the fares to ride the Paris Metro are nearly doubling during Olympic season.
• Athens anti-tourism graffiti: In May 2024, residents in Athens joined other European countries in protest of over-tourism, causing graffiti to spread across the Greek capital with slogans such as “No tourists, no hipsters”.
• Venice anti-tourism protests:  In July 2017, around 2,000 protesters in Italy’s Venice took to the streets in protest against tourism, saying it has eroded their quality of life and the environment.
• Curbs on tourists in Kyoto: In December, a group of residents from Gion in Japan’s city of Kyoto requested council to take action against tourists, resulting in Kyoto’s authorities barring foreign visitors from entering the narrow alleyways of Gion’s geisha district.

Barcelona residents squirt tourists with water guns — ‘Go home!’

In a protest blending whimsy and frustration, thousands of Barcelona residents turned against mass tourism on Saturday. They were armed with an unlikely weapon: the water pistol. 

The Las Ramblas district—a popular tourist site—turned into an impromptu waterpark as protestors squirted water guns at unsuspecting tourists enjoying their al-fresco meals. 

Video footage from CNN shows a pair of boys hobbling away from a water-gun attack, ice cream still in hand. Another woman, with her hair soaked, awkwardly scurried away from the barrage as the protestors yelled at her and her tourist peers to “go home.” 

While the protest methods may be light-hearted, the protestors’ sentiments were not. The Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic (ABDT), which organized the protest (but told Fortune that the water guns were spontaneous) argue that citizens “suffer directly” from the record-breaking influx of tourists that visit the city every year. 

Since the pandemic, tourists have visited the historic city in record numbers —in 2023, 23 million visitors stayed overnight in Barcelona, dwarfing the city’s population of 1.62 million. These visitors also spent €12.75 billion ($13.8 billion), or about 15% of the city’s income, according to Barcelona’s City Council . 

Yet, the ABDT argues the average citizen doesn’t enjoy these profits, and instead faces soaring housing costs, precarious employment, and a lower quality of life. 

Housing costs

Rent prices have soared in the Spanish city by 68% over the past decade, while the cost of purchasing a home has increased by 38%, according to Jaume Collboni, Barcelona’s mayor. He and other city council officials blame the explosion of the short-term rental market in the city for driving up costs. 

Last month, during a city council press conference, Collboni revealed Airbnb-style short-term housing rentals would be banned from the city by November 2028. The move would make about 10,101 apartments available for long-term rentals. 

“We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona’s largest problem,” Collboni said at the event. He added the housing affordability crisis has particularly affected young people, and has become a major driver of inequality in the city. 

The mayor who served in the eight years before Collboni, Ada Colau—who had a history of left-wing activism before taking office—also took a number of steps to curb short-term rentals. These policies include limiting the number of hotel beds permitted in the city, banning new hotels in the historic center, and forcing landlords who want to rent their apartments on Airbnb to obtain a tourist license through city hall. 

“Barcelona has tried to introduce some bold strategy,” Anna Torres-Delgado , a research fellow and expert in Barcelona tourism at the University of Surrey, told online magazine Reasons to be Cheerful . “In some ways it has been useful and has worked well in the historic center.”

However, protestors say these policies are not enough. A spokesperson from ABDT told Fortune that Collboni’s policies only aim to swing from apartment rentals to hotels, which are “equally built on housing buildings, so the problem remains.”  The spokesperson also accused Collboni of trying to benefit hotels, which are “historically related” to the mayor’s Socialist Party of Catalonia. 

Among other guidelines, ABDT’s manifesto calls for the elimination of tourist apartments and a ban in building more short-term rental housing. 

Pandemic isolation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city suffered from tanking visitor numbers. Bars, shops, and restaurants shuttered their doors as one of the main sectors of the economy–tourism–faltered, prompting debate that the city needed to diversify its economy. 

That’s part of ABDT’s argument. The group’s spokesperson said the pandemic was “much harder” on Barcelona’s touristy neighborhoods and that specialization in tourism makes the city extremely vulnerable to multiple issues, like “pandemics, geopolitical changes, terrorism, tourism trendies and so on.”

However, the quiet provided residents with an opportunity to re-discover their city. 

“We don’t want life to be like it was in the pandemic but it also gave us a chance to see that there were other possibilities without massive tourism,” Martí Cusó, who lives in the Gothic Quarter, Barcelona’s busiest tourist area, told The Guardian .

“My barrio is so saturated with tourists it’s impossible to meet someone in the street or for children to play or even to get a good night’s sleep,” he says, adding that the pandemic provided a “missed” opportunity to rethink the city. 

Most residents, however, have a positive view of tourism, according to the city council’s report “ Perception of Tourism in Barcelona 2023 .” Some 70.9% of people believe tourism benefits the city, a rise of 4% compared to 2022. 

Yet, even those who recognize that tourism is essential to Barcelona’s economy have become disillusioned by the influx of travelers, according to the report. 

“More and more people believe that Barcelona has reached its tourism capacity limit,” it says.

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Fed up with tourists, Barcelona protesters blast them with water guns

Locals marched and delivered a manifesto on tourism’s cost-of-living impact, the latest backlash against a global travel surge since the end of pandemic limits.

Key takeaways

Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed.

• Demonstrators say that tourism inflates living costs and that revenue distribution is uneven.
• They made 13 demands, including limits on tourist accommodations and fewer cruise terminals.
• The frustration in Spain reflects a growing backlash against overtourism around the world.

Thousands took to the streets of Barcelona over the weekend to protest overtourism , some armed with brightly colored water pistols that sent bewildered visitors fleeing restaurant patios, abandoning half-eaten meals.

The protesters, who carried signs reading “Tourists go home,” say tourism has inflated the cost of living for Barcelonians, while the revenue from visitors hasn’t been fairly distributed across the city. As travel rebounds after the end of pandemic restrictions, the frustration in Spain reflects growing backlash against overtourism around the world.

• Led by the Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic, or the Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, the protesters listed 13 demands in a manifesto published Saturday, including restrictions on tourist accommodations, fewer cruise terminals in the city’s port and an end to tourism advertisements using public money.
• Local authorities estimated 2,800 people participated in the protests. Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, 48, a member of the organizing group, said as many as 20,000 people from 170 organizations took part in the protests.
• Rivacoba said the use of water guns was a spontaneous decision made by individual protesters and was not suggested by organizers. “Receiving water on your face is not nice, but it’s not violent,” he said.
• Responding to growing concerns, Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni pledged Saturday to reserve 10,000 residential units usually used by tourists for local residents and increase taxes on tourists, among other measures.

Barcelona has long been a popular tourist destination. Last year, close to 26 million visited the region, according to official figures , and Spain was the second-most-visited country in the world, according to U.N. Tourism . Barcelona’s population is 1.7 million.

Along with Venice , it is where the backlash against overtourism began, said T.C. Chang, a professor of geography at the National University of Singapore who researches urban tourism.

“As far as I know, there has been no explicit violence. But [overtourism] was already recognized at least 2-3 years before the pandemic,” he said in an email, noting that residents have also put up “No tourists welcome” signs in neighborhoods. “What has happened in Barcelona will spread to more tourist-crowded places beyond Europe,” he added.

The bigger picture

Locales in Japan , Indonesia , Greece , Italy and the Netherlands have also taken steps to curb influxes of visitors in the past year.

In Japan, one town sought to install a huge screen at a popular photo spot in front of Mount Fuji to stop tourists from taking selfies and causing traffic jams. Last year, the Greek government imposed a new timed ticketing system for the ancient Acropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with a visitor cap of 20,000 people per day. Venice experimented with extracting extra fees from tourists, while Amsterdam restricted the construction of new hotels.

“I think the key point here is about sustainable tourism development and sustainable management of tourist flows within a country,” said J.J. Zhang, a tourism geographer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

As a possible solution, Zhang suggested determining the capacity of popular sites and controlling traffic, such as by “using technology where real-time data can be communicated to tourists such that overcrowded places could be avoided,” he said.

But Bob McKercher, a professor in tourism at the University of Queensland in Australia, raised another issue: The majority of tourists worldwide are domestic. “So while overtourism may be a long-standing issue,” he said, “can you really stop people from visiting their own country?”

Beatriz Ríos contributed to this report.

Protesters spray water guns at tourists in Barcelona as thousands rally against overtourism

• More than 150 activist groups gathered in Barcelona on Saturday to protest overtourism.
• Footage showed protesters squirting water guns at tourists and telling them to "go home."
• Barcelona is combating overtourism, which locals blame for the increased cost of living.

Protesters swarmed the streets of Barcelona to condemn mass tourism , which they blame for skyrocketing rent prices and the city becoming "unliveable."

Multiple outlets reported that thousands of protesters, including more than 150 organizations, marched through Barcelona on Saturday.

Photos showed protesters carrying signs that read, "Barcelona is not for sale" and "Tourists go home."

Footage obtained by BBC showed protesters using water guns against people visiting popular tourist areas while chanting, "Go home!"

Protesters also taped off certain restaurants and hotels as if to symbolically close the establishments.

Barcelona is a top tourist destination that draws millions of travelers annually with its Mediterranean climate and distinct culture. According to the Barcelona Tourism Observatory, the city welcomed 15.6 million tourists last year, with the wider region receiving nearly 26 million.

While the influx of travelers brings money to Barcelona's economy, it can also have adverse effects, such as increasing the local cost of living.

Reuters reported that rent in Barcelona and other popular cities such as Madrid rose by 18% in June compared with the previous year.

One protester told Reuters, "The city has turned completely for tourists, and what we want is a city for citizens and not in service of tourists."

Another said tourist-heavy venues such as restaurants and hotels made good money from tourists, but some locals "are in a very poor situation and they don't have enough money to live," adding, "That's a problem."

Related stories

A resident told AFP the city was suffering as a result.

"I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona, we are suffering from an excess of tourism that has made our city unliveable," they said.

Representatives for the mayor of Barcelona, the city's police department, and the tourism office didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Barcelona officials have taken measures in recent months to address overtourism. It's an issue several popular tourist hubs are tackling, including Japan and Venice .

The city increased its tourist tax in April, USA Today reported.

In June, it announced plans to ban all short-term rentals .

"More supply of housing is needed, and the measures we're presenting today are to provide more supply so that the working middle class does not have to leave the city because they can't afford housing," Mayor Jaume Collboni of Barcelona said, according to Bloomberg. "This measure will not change the situation from one day to the next. These problems take time. But with this measure, we are marking a turning point."

Barcelona banned cruise ships from docking at one of its terminals last year to address overcrowding and pollution.

Watch: Video shows protesters setting fire to the streets in France

• Main content

Saturday, July 20, 2024 11:44 am (Paris)

Barcelona residents protest against mass tourism

The city's rising cost of housing, up 68% in the past decade according to local authorities, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions.

Le Monde with AFP

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Thousands of protesters marched Saturday, July 6, in Barcelona to denounce mass tourism and its effect on Spain's most visited city, the latest in a series of similar marches in the country.

Under the slogan "Enough! Let's put limits on tourism", some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.

"I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we are suffering from an excess of tourism that has made our city unliveable," said Jordi Guiu, a 70-year-old sociologist. With banners saying "Reduce tourism now!", the protesters chanted slogans such as "Tourists out of our neighborhood", stopping in front of hotels to the surprise of visitors.

Barcelona's rising cost of housing, up 68% in the past decade according to local authorities, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants. "Local shops are closing to make way for stores that do not serve the needs of neighborhoods. People cannot afford their rents," said Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta district.

12 million tourists last year

The northeastern coastal city, with internationally famous sites such as La Sagrada Familia, received more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.

To combat the "negative effects of mass tourism", the city council run by the Socialist Jaume Collboni announced 10 days ago that it was banning tourist apartment rentals – there are now more than 10,000 – by 2028 so that they can be put back on the local housing market.

The announcement could lead to a legal battle and is opposed by an association of tourist apartments who say it will just feed the black market.

The Barcelona protests come after similar demonstrations in tourist hotspots such as Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and the Canary Islands.

The second most visited country after France, Spain received 85 million foreign visitors in 2023, an increase of 18.7% from the previous year, according to the National Statistics Institute. The most visited region was Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, with 18 million, followed by the Balearic Islands (14.4 million) and the Canary Islands (13.9 million).

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