Tourism activity grows in employment and businesses throughout Destination Barcelona

The OTB has released the third capsule of the 2024 Barcelona Tourism Activity Report with information on the tourist evaluation, citizen opinion, economic activity, job market, sustainability, meetings tourism and trade fair activity in Destination Barcelona.

As usual, this report provides data about the three geographical levels that the OTB covers: Barcelona city, Barcelona region, and Destination Barcelona.

 

Tourist evaluation

The tourists’ general evaluation of Destination Barcelona municipalities reached a score of 8.60 out of 10 in 2024, so that it remained fairly stable compared to the previous year (+0.01 points). In Barcelona city, which had a highest score, the overall rating was 8.71, while in Barcelona region it was 8.43.

Most of the aspects that were valued in the Destination were rated over 8. The most valued aspects were the character and kindness of the local people (8.57), the public transport (8.37), and the gastronomy (8.36). On the other hand, the aspect with a lower score kept being the noise (7.26).

In Barcelona city, the best-considered attributes were the architecture (9.29), culture (8.94), and public transport (8.58). On the contrary, noise (6.81), and general cleanliness (7.70) were the least valued aspects.

In Barcelona region, the character and kindness of people (8.70) remained in the first position, followed by public safety (8.59), and accommodation (8.43). However, the least valued aspects were the parking supply (7.20) and accessibility (7.71).

International tourists were those who gave the best overall rating to the municipalities of the Destination (8.68), while if the ratings are analysed according to reason of travel, those travelling because of holidays or leisure reasons were those who gave the highest ratings (8.68).

 

Citizen opinion

In Barcelona city, the percentage of residents who believed that tourism is generally beneficial for the municipality dropped up to 59.6%, reaching the lowest value in the historical series, which began in 2007. Parallelly, those who thought that tourism is harmful for the city increased to a lesser extent, reaching 31.1% (+8.1pp), while an increase among residents who showed indifference toward this issue was recorded, reaching 9.3% (+3.1 pp).

In Barcelona region, the proportion of residents who considered the impact of tourism on Catalan society as a whole positive or very positive also decreased (–10.4pp), down to 73.4%, while those who thought otherwise nearly doubled, reaching 17.7% (+8.2pp).

Regarding whether more tourists should continue to be attracted to the destination, less than a quarter of residents in the city of Barcelona were in favour, also representing a sharp drop from the previous year (–12.6pp), while those who believed that the city is reaching its service capacity for tourists rose to nearly three out of four (+12.9pp). In Barcelona region, those who believed their county should attract more tourists once again surpassed the half (55.3%, +5.6pp), while the proportion of those who disagreed with this statement also increased (30.4%, +4.2pp).

 

Economic activity and job market

The weight of tourism on the economic activity continued to be higher in Barcelona city (16.0% in number of companies and 13.4% in employment) than in Barcelona region (15.1% in number of companies and 10.4% in employment).

Both, the number of companies and employees in tourism increased year-on-year in Destination Barcelona (+2.8% and +3.4%, respectively). In the latter case, in Barcelona city recorded a higher increase in employment than in Barcelona region (+5.3% and +1.6%, respectively).

One more year after the entry into force of the new hiring regulations in 2022, in 2024 hiring in the tourism activity core experienced a decrease. However, while temporary contracts decreased year-on-year (-9,3%), permanent contracts increased (+2.3%).

On the other hand, registered unemployment in the core of tourism activity increased in Barcelona city compared to the previous year (+2.5%) but it decreased in Barcelona region (-1,2%), which resulted in a stabilization of the number of unemployed people across the Destination as a whole (-0.1%).

 

Sustainability

One more year, this report includes the results of several indicators related to tourism sustainability in Destination Barcelona, which are part of the OTB’s Sustainable Tourism Indicators System (SITS-OTB). These indicators respond to 3 areas of sustainability (environmental, socio-cultural and economic) and covers various issues such as: pollution, mobility, citizen satisfaction, public safety, the economic impact of tourism and the job market. Due to the cross-cutting nature of the issues that affect the sustainability of tourism activity, some of these indicators have already appeared in other chapters of this report. The analysis of the evolution of the results of these indicators is available in the results section of the Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona: city and region’s Sustainability website.

As for sustainability certifications, in 2024, 1.066 companies and services obtained a Biosphere Certificate, which means an 8.1%-year-on-year growth. By typology, accommodation companies kept gathering 1 out of 3 certificates.

Moreover, 6 destinations maintained their Biosphere certificate and another 59 were distinguished (5 over the previous year). Vallès Oriental was the region with more distinctions (11), followed by Anoia and Osona (9 each), and Baix Llobregat (8).

These entities have obtained the Biosphere Certificate/Commitment thanks to the work carried out within the framework of the “Commitment to Sustainable Tourism Destination Barcelona” programme, promoted by the Barcelona Regional Council and the Barcelona City Council, with the support of the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona and the Consortium Turisme de Barcelona.

 

Meetings tourism and fair trade activity

In 2024, 1,968 meetings were registered in Destination Barcelona, which meant a slight year-on-year growth (+1.2% Var. 24/23). One more time, most of the events were held in the second and the last quarter of the year, accounting for more than 6 out of each 10 meetings throughout 2024. Telecommunications/technology events were the most numerous (14.2%), followed by the medical (14.0%) and the pharmaceutical ones (12.1%).

On the other side, the number of assistants, 734.818, grew more sharply than the number of events (+26.2% Var. 24/23), and for the first time, it surpassed pre-pandemic figures (+10.6% Var. 24/19). This was made possible by the recovery of Asian markets, which until the previous year were still affected by strict travel restrictions, significantly impacting events such as the Mobile World Congress.

At Fira de Barcelona, 77 face-to-face events were organised, with 18,322 direct exhibitors. Health and wellness fairs (23.4%) were, once again, the most frequent type of event and, in total, over 1.4M visitors were registered. The quarters with the most face-to-face events were the second and the fourth quarter, which alone welcomed more than 850,000 people.

 

More information: Barcelona tourism activity report 2024 – Capsule 3