The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona: city and region has published the first capsule of the 2022 Barcelona Tourism Activity Report, the year in which the reactivation of tourism activity was consolidated, both globally and in Destination Barcelona.

The lifting of most travel restrictions within Europe in spring and in the United States in June, the increase of traveller confidence, the pent-up demand from previous years, and the recovery of professional and cultural events enabled tourism activity to approach prepandemic levels. However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the global energy crisis, the Covid-19 situation in China and more restrictive travel policies for certain intercontinental markets, especially the Asian ones, limited it.

According to the World Tourism Organization, more than 900 million tourists travelled internationally in 2022, twice as many as in 2021, but still 63% of pre-pandemic levels globally. In Europe, where a 80%-level over 2019 was achieved, 585 million arrivals were recorded.

This capsule of the report provides the first data on tourist activity at the three geographical levels that the OTB works on: Barcelona city, Barcelona region, and Destination Barcelona. This capsule contains three chapters with data on accommodation, tourist demand, and mobility infrastructures.

Accommodation

In 2022, the impossibility of applying for new accommodation licences in Barcelona city due to the PEUAT meant that the number of accommodation bed places in the city was reduced compared to the previous year (-0.2%). However, there were new openings of hotels and home for tourist use with previously granted licences, so that by the end of 2022, the city had 16 more establishments than the previous year (+0.2%).

In Barcelona region, the year-on-year growth in the number of licensed establishments was much higher (+5.3%), mainly due to a significant increase in the number of homes for tourist use licences (+5.7%), which meant that by December 2022 there would be almost 5,000 more beds than in 2021 (+2.6%).

Tourism demand

Although the impact of Covid-19 was still evident at the beginning of 2022, from spring onwards, the recovery in demand for tourist accommodation in Destination Barcelona was notable as the year progressed.

Thus, in the hotels of the destination as a whole, the number of tourists exceeded 10 million (+104.8% Var. 22/21) and overnight stays, 28 million (+194.4% Var. 22/21). This was not only the type of establishment that grew the most compared to the previous year in 2022, but also the one that extended the average stay the most, which was 2.6 nights.

Guesthouses and inns, which recorded a growth of over 80%, reached over 2 million overnight stays, slightly above tourist apartments, which average stay continued over 6 nights.

The demand for homes for tourist use, which data is only available for Barcelona city, registered a more limited year-on-year growth (+40.8%), but recorded 1 out of every 3 overnight stays in the city.

Campsites and rural tourism establishments, which were the most resilient types in the years of the pandemic, recorded growths between 25-40%.

Finally, youth hostels in Barcelona city generated 2.3 million overnight stays and recorded the highest occupancy rate (70.1%) of all the types of accommodation analysed.

Mobility infrastructures

Due to travel restrictions and border closures to contain Covid-19, the activity during the first quarter of 2022 at Barcelona Destination infrastructures was still limited.

Nevertheless, Barcelona Airport ended the year with 41.6 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of +120.6%. It is worth highlighting the recovery of passengers on intercontinental flights (+241.2%) and the increase in the supply of flights, which, with more than 280,000 operations, stood at +73.1% year-on-year.

In Barcelona Port, cruise activity was reactivated from April onwards and recorded an increase of 197.0% in the number of operations and +347.5% in passengers compared to 2021. The number of ferries increased by +25.9% year-on-year and passengers by +62.9%.

In the rail sector, the city of Barcelona was directly connected to 8 international and 16 domestic destinations.

More information: Barcelona tourism activity report 2022 - Capsule 1