The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona updates the Destination Barcelona tourism forecast report as of 23/04/2021. This report highlights the effects of Covid-19 on the tourism sector. The main changes of this report can be found on the tourist offer and the tourist demand sections.

Covid-19 restrictive measures

Covid-19 preventive measures continue despite the increasing number of worldwide vaccinations.

In Catalonia, from the 27th of April to the 2nd of May, the following measures will affect the tourism sector:

- Restaurants and bars: 30% of capacity on the inside and 100% on the outside of the establishments. Opening hours from 7.30 am to 17 h. Take-away outside the opening hours will continue to be allowed.

- Commerce: 30% of capacity on shops without surface limit

- Professional events: congresses, corporate meetings, and incentives and workshops have been canceled.

- Culture: 50% of capacity in cinemas, concert halls, museums and exhibition centers.

- Night curfew: from 10 pm to 6 am.

- Region perimeter lockdown: It is forbidden to leave or to enter Catalonia. The regional lockdown has been removed. 

Several Autonomous Communities keep applying perimeter lockdowns. However, the Spanish government has announced the ending of the state of alarm on 09/05/21.

Source markets

European internal borders keep open but almost all EU countries maintain restrictive measures. 

The entry measures to all passengers flying from Brazil and South Africa, due to new variants of the virus will be mantained in Spain until the 11/05.

The EU Digital Green Certificate against Covid-19 will allow movements within the continent to those who have been vaccinated or produced antibodies and to those who have been tested (PCR or an antigen test). This certificate could be available at the beginning of the summer.

Air capacity

The global airlines capacity during 19/04 week has been -44.4%. It is expected that, in the next months, there will be a slow global recovery in frequencies, up to -9% by the end of September (var. 21/19).

In Spain, the number of seats during this week has been -76.5% behind the same week on 2019, and an increase in the airlines capacity is also expected during summer: in July, at this moment, there are scheduled -12% of seats to France, -20% to the United Kingdom United, -25% to Germany and -35% to Italy (var. 21/19).

On the other hand, during the 21/06 week, the new Avlo high-speed train service between Madrid and Figueres will start operating and Barcelona Port is willing to recover its cruise activity.

Tourist offer and professional events

In Barcelona city, 128 hotels with 29,767 beds remain open. The Eixample, the Gothic Quarter, and Sant Martí are the districts with more available offer.

81.8% of the cultural facilities in Barcelona city are open to the public. However, some of the most visited sightseeing places in Barcelona city keep temporarily closed (Sagrada Familia, Tibidabo and Casa Batlló).

As for the professional events, it must be highlighted that there are 102 confirmed congresses for the upcoming years, 53 in 2021.

Tourist demand

Over the last week, Google searches from Spain for both, Barcelona city and Destination Barcelona have increased during the last week. Most of the searches for both geographical areas keep coming from Catalonia.

The Barcelona flights and accommodation searches achieve their best positioning on the Dutch, the French, the Italian and the Spanish markets, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom. Destination Barcelona has ranked 14th in search of accommodation and 9th in search of flights in the ranking of international destinations worldwide.

The hotel bookings in Barcelona city over the last week (11/04-17/04) have remained slightly increased: while two weeks ago, 21.8% of bookings had been made, last week, they were 23.4% (as compared with the peak of January 2020). Over the same week, the volume of hotel reservations in Destination Barcelona has been lower: while two weeks ago, 40.3% of bookings have been made, last week, they were 38.9% (as compared with the peak of January 2020).

Destination Barcelona tourism forecast (23/04/2021)