• The typical tourist profile has been a 37.2-year-old person, who lives in Spain, who has university studies, who has traveled as a couple, for leisure and holiday reasons, who arrives at the Destination by plane or private vehicle, and who has visited the destination municipality 16.1 times on average.
• As in 2020, restrictions and measures imposed internationally to contain Covid-19 have changed the profile of the tourist in the Destination Barcelona during 2021.
• The most used method to buy both the transport and the accommodation has been directly with the transport company or the establishment.
• The expense during the stay has been € 229.9 per person and € 57.5 per person and day. Food and drink has been the item where more resources have been allocated.

The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona has published a new study on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona. This study, which has revealed the change in the profile and habits of the tourist as a result of the international pandemic situation, has been undertaken thanks to 8.826 surveys to visitors that stayed overnight in Destination Barcelona in 2021.

The tourist who travels to Destination Barcelona is an average of 37.2 years old, lives in Spain (51.3%), has university studies (60.3%), works as an employee (62.1%), and travels mostly as a couple (30,8), alone (26.8%) or with the family (20.6%). Leisure and holiday have been the main reasons to visit the Destination (62.9%), while the plane (44.3%) and the private vehicle (34.7%) have been the most used means of transport to arrive. The tourist has visited the destination municipality 16.1 times on average.

When planning their trip, they mainly have used websites (56.5%) and information provided by friends and relatives (24.4%). On the other hand, although the purchase of the transport of arrival and the accommodation has been made mainly through the company's website (69.6% and 41.6% respectively), the accommodation has also been hired through OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) (33.1%), being Booking and Airbnb the most used ones.

Regarding the preference in the type of accommodation, although 58.2% of tourists stay in hotels, which is very similar to previous years, Covid-19 has caused that a large number of tourists have chosen other types of accommodation. Thus, the private homes (staying with friends or relatives) (15.4%) and campsites (8.8%), have experienced a significant increase over the pre-pandemic years. The average length of stay has been 5.1 nights.

The expense during the stay has also experienced significant differences compared to previous years, with falls around -30%, reaching € 229.9 per person and € 57.5 per person per day, still far from € 297.2 per person and € 69.9 per person per day of the pre-pandemic period. Despite this variation, the tourist continues to spend more than half of this expenditure on food and drinks, followed, in this order, by shopping, entertainment, and domestic transportation. North Americans, Swiss and those from the rest of the world have a higher average expense during their stay than the rest.

Finally, the report also includes an analysis of the places that tourists visit or want to visit outside the municipality where they stay overnight in Destination Barcelona: 19.6% of the surveyed tourists have made an excursion outside the municipality, especially domestic tourists and Polish staying in rural tourism dwellings, campsites or private homes.

More infomation: Report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona 2021