• The Report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Barcelona, analyses the profile of the tourists in Barcelona city.
• It is the result of the Survey on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Barcelona city, which has been conducted since 1989.
• The report analyzes the entire tourist customer journey in Barcelona city.

The OTB has published the second study on the Profile and Habits of Tourists Survey. This study has been undertaken thanks to 10.759 surveys to visitors that stayed overnight in Barcelona city between 2018 and 2019. 

The purpose of these surveys is to know the behavior of the visitors that stayed overnight in Barcelona surroundings and considers all three phases of the customer journey: before the travel -travel bookings-, during the stay at the destination -it includes the expense-, and the vision after his/her experience–evaluation-.

In this edition of the report, it has been found that the tourist who travels to Barcelona city has an average of 37.1 years old, university studies (71.4%) and travels mostly ​as a couple (30.5%), alone (28.2% ) or with the family (16.9%).

More than half of the tourists stay in hotels (50.3%), followed by those who stay in homes for tourist use (19.4%), with friends and family (14.0%), and in youth hostels (13.2%). The average length of stay is 5.0 nights.

The main purpose of travel is leisure (70.3%), followed by professional reasons (19.7%).

Those who stay the most in hotels are those who travel for professional reasons and the Dutch, the British, and the Belgians. However, those who stay the most in homes for tourist use travel for leisure reasons, and they mainly come from the United States or France.

The average rating made by tourists of Barcelona city is 8.8 and 75.1% of those who visited the city for professional reasons will come back for holidays or to visit it in the next three years.

Taking quiet walks (76.7%) and going to restaurants (75.0%) are the most common activities of tourists in Barcelona city. 

La Rambla (75.4%), and Catalunya square / Passeig de Gràcia (67.0%) are the most visited places by tourists during their stay in Barcelona city.

The metro (62.5%), the taxi (34.8%) and he bus (32.8%) are, like during the previous years, the most used means of transport to travel within the city.

51.9% of the metro, FGC, and public bus users have bought a T-10 card, while 27.4% have preferred the single ticket and 17.0%, the Hola BCN.

10.3% of the interviewed have used the tourist information offices network, followed by those that have used the tourist bus (9.9%), the visit Barcelona website (7.5%), and the Barcelona Card (2.3%). The users of these products give them high rates (between 8.1 and 8.4 on a scale of 0 out of 10).

77.1% of visitors have not contemplated any alternative destination to Barcelona city and 3 out of 4 use the Internet as the main source of information to plan the trip (73.9%). As for the way to book both transport and accommodation services, most of them have done it online directly with the company (74.6% and 62.1%, respectively).

If the expense during the stay at Barcelona surroundings is analyzed, it should be noted that it remains stable in comparison with the expense of the previous report, with an average of € 345.5 per person and € 82.3 per person and day. Professional visitors, those who stay in hotels, and the Dutch, Americans and those from the rest of the world have a higher average expenditure during their stay than the rest. Food and drink is the item in which the expenditure is higher, above shopping and entertainment.

The report also includes an analysis on the places that tourists visit or want to visit outside the city. Noteworthy is that only 11.6% of the surveyed have made an excursion outside of Barcelona, a trend that is slightly growing.

Only 3.9% of tourists have reported having been a victim of a crime or attempt of crime. The main scenes of these criminal acts are the metro stations (18.0%), Las Ramblas (15.2%) and other streets or squares (14.7%). 25.5% of the tourists who have suffered a crime have reported it by signing a document in front of the police or the court while 2.5% have not signed any document. 25.4% of the victims who spent the night in a hotel knew that the report could be filed in at the hotel itself, but 10.0% of them did not do it.

To better understand the tourists' city image, a series of statements have been made on different aspects that condition the tourist activity. First of all, almost all of the tourists agree that Barcelona is a city for walking (91.0%). On the other hand, 49.5% believe that there are too many people for sightseeing and 35.0% agree that the city prices are too high as compared to the quality.

Finally, it should be highlighted that 48.0% of the survey respondents have already stayed in the city before. The international tourists with the highest repeatability rate are the Dutch (61.1%), the Belgians (57.7%), and the British (52.7%).

Related link: Report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Barcelona city (in Catalan)