The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona presents the first capsule of the 2024 annual report which includes data on the universe of tourists and the economic impact of their direct expenditure in Destination Barcelona, together with data on the accommodation offer, tourism demand in payment accommodation, and infrastructures. The information is broken down into the three geographical levels that OTB usually works: Barcelona city, Barcelona region and Destination Barcelona.

Context of tourism: universe and impact

According to the World Tourism Organization, more than 1.4 billion tourists travelled internationally in 2024 all over the world, which meant 99% of pre-pandemic levels worldwide, and 11% over of 2023. This growth was driven, among other factors, by strong post-pandemic demand and solid performance from major source markets. In Europe, 747M tourists were received, a +1% increase compared to 2019, and a +5% increase compared to 2023, mainly due to strong interregional demand. Nearly all areas of Europe surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but the Mediterranean region stands out with an 8% increase compared to 2019. However, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine continued to affect the continent's tourism activity, particularly in the central and eastern destinations.

According to OTB’s calculations, the city of Barcelona received a total of 15.6M tourists in 2024, which, combined with the 10.5M in Barcelona region, brought the Destination Barcelona a total to 26.1 million. These figures, along with accommodation expenditure and the expense made during the stay, have allowed the OTB to estimate the economic impact of the direct expenditure from tourism activity at a total of 14.088M euros in Destination Barcelona as a whole. This impact is distributed as 10.318M in Barcelona city and 3.770M in Barcelona region.

It is important to highlight that, while the growth in the number of tourists was negative in Barcelona city (-0.2% Var. 24/23) and limited in the Barcelona region (+1.8% Var. 24/23), the economic impact was significantly higher than in 2023, with year-on-year growth of +6.6% in the first case and +22.6%, in the second, which meant a 10.5% year-on-year increase to the Destination as a whole.

These calculations include data from tourists staying in paid tourist accommodations in the Destination and other types of accommodation without economic transaction, such as homes of friends and relatives.

Accommodation

Despite the impossibility of applying for new accommodation licences in Barcelona due to the PEUAT, the supply of tourist accommodation in the city grew year-on-year. This was due to the opening of about half a thousand homes for tourist use (HTUs), which had to be registered with at the Consolidated Census of Tourist Accommodation Establishments (CCEAT), since they were previously granted licences. While this led to a +4.7% year-on-year increase in the total number of tourist accommodation establishments in the city, it’s worth noting that the number of beds grew at a more limited rate, with a +1.7% increase. The rest of the types of tourist accommodation remained virtually at the same level.

In Barcelona region, there was also a year-on-year increase in tourist accommodation supply (+2.4% in beds), mainly due to increased capacity in hotels (+3.9%) and HUTs (+1.9%), which together added nearly 4,000 new beds. On the other hand, hostels saw a reduction in capacity, with two fewer establishments than the previous year and a -9.3% decrease in beds.

In Barcelona region, the year-on-year increase in the supply of tourist accommodation was even greater (+10.5% in establishments and +4.4% in bed places), also due to a strong growth in HTUs. Despite the new regulation approved by the Generalitat de Catalunya in November 2023, which limits these dwellings, the year closed with 7,500 new bed places in this type of accommodation (+11.6%).

Tourism demand

The number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation in Barcelona Destination increased year-on-year (+3.9% Var. 24/23), also surpassing the 2019 levels by around +4%.

In the hotels across the Destination, 12.5M tourists (+1.8% Var. 24/23), and more than 32.6M overnight stays were recorded (+2.4% Var. 24/23). Nearly two-thirds of the hotel demand were registered in the city of Barcelona. However, in this geographical area, hotel overnight stays remained quite stable compared to the previous year (-0.1% Var. 24/23), while in Barcelona region, they grew (+6.8% Var. 24/23).

Guesthouses and inns accommodated over 660,000 people, growing by +7.4% year-on-year. Additionally, since they registered a longer average stay than the previous year, overnight stays, 2.1 million, grew at a more pronounced rate (+13.2% Var. 24/23).

Campsites, with more than 3.4 million overnight stays, increased their demand by +6.8% (Var. 24/23). In contrast, rural tourism establishments, recorded more tourists than the previous year (165,000 people and +1.2% Var. 24/23), yet they remained quite stable in overnight stays (almost 411,000 and -0.2% Var. 24/23).

Finally, with data available only for Barcelona city, tourist apartments generated 12.4M overnight stays (+6.4% Var. 24/23), representing a third of the total for the municipality, while youth hostels recorded nearly 2.6M (+3.4% Var. 23/22).

Mobility infrastructures

The global increase in air capacity once again led to a rise in both operations (+9.1% Var. 24/23) and passenger movements (+10.3% Var. 24/23) at Barcelona Airport, which not only closed the year with more passenger movements than before the pandemic (+4.5% Var. 24/19), with a figure exceeding 55M, but also set a new historical record.

One more year, it’s worth highlighting the increase in passengers’ movements on intercontinental flights (+19.2% Var. 24/23), driven by the reopening and the launch of new long-haul routes. In this sense, in 2024, Barcelona Airport was connected to 56 intercontinental destinations, which represents a +7.7% year-on-year growth.

At Barcelona Port, 791 cruise arrivals (-1.6% Var. 24/23) and 3,263 ferry arrivals (-6.4% Var. 24/23) were recorded. Although these figures were lower than the previous year, the port registered more passenger movements than ever before: carrying more movement of passengers than ever: 3.7M in the first case, and 1.7M, in the second.

As for the rail sector, the city of Barcelona was directly connected by the high-speed train to 16 domestic and 13 international destinations, all of them French.

More information: Barcelona Tourism Activity report 2024 and Key figures