The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona: city and region presents the monographic report on sports tourism, which includes the main conclusions of this profile of tourists in the three usual geographical areas that the OTB covers: Barcelona city, Barcelona region and Destination Barcelona.

Sports tourism is a type of tourism that defines those people who have participated in a sports event as a participant, spectator or both during their visit, with 18.3% of visitors staying overnight in Destination Barcelona, 17.1% in Barcelona city and 20.2% in Barcelona region.

Within sports tourism we can classify these people according to the activity they carry out during their stay in the Barcelona destination, thus obtaining two profiles of sports tourism, the one that carries out a sports practice as a participant (Participant) and the one that attends a sports event as a spectator (Spectator).

These Two sports tourism profiles are characterized by:

Sports Tourist Participant

This is the tourist who during his trip has participated in some sports activity, represents 11.6% of tourism in Destination Barcelona, 8.8% of Barcelona city and 16.0% of Barcelona region. It stands out with respect to the other sports profiles in the Destination as a whole for being:

• Higher weight of domestic tourists (35.0%).
• The highest proportion of arrivals in own vehicle (31.9%).
• The highest proportion of repeat visitors (52.4%).
• The profile that comes most often as a couple (46.2%).
• The tourist who walks the most in the municipality of accommodation (65.1%).
• The tourist who makes more excursions outside the municipality of destination (31.3%).

Tourist Sports Spectator

This is the tourist who during his trip has attended some sports activity as spectator, represent 8.4% of tourism in Destination Barcelona, 9.8% of Barcelona city and 6.2% of Barcelona region. Its distinctive features in the Destination as a whole are:

• The youngest tourist profile (36.3 years).
• Higher weight of international tourists (74.8%).
• More arrivals by plane (66.3%) and hotel accommodation (49.7%).
• The most frequent visitor to the municipality for leisure reasons (80.3%).
• The highest proportion of first-time visitors (52.7%).
• Highest expenses in the two items per person per day: €76.32 during the stay (per person per day) and €341.19 arrival transport (per person).

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The Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona 2023 has been undertaken thanks to 1,476 surveys to visitors aged 18 and over that stayed overnight in Destination Barcelona in the months of January to December 2023 in any type of accommodation other than a second home or a and who have participated and/or attended a sports activity during their stay in the Destination., with the objective of getting to know better the profile and habits of travelers during their stay in Destination Barcelona. It should be noted that, of the total number of sports tourists, 63.7% have participated some sports activity and 45.7% have attended some sports activity as public during their visit to the municipality where they spend the night.

It is worth highlighting the inclusion in this monograph of the possibility of comparing the sports profile analyzed with the sports profile analyzed in the previous year, as well as the total number of tourists who have visited the Destination by hovering the mouse over the response options in the graphs.

More information:

• Infographics of Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona 2023 on Sports Tourism
• Results report. Monograph on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in the Barcelona 2023 Destination on Sports tourism