• The Report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Barcelona surroundings, analyses the tourist profile of Destination Barcelona excluding Barcelonès region.
• It is the result of the Survey on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona, which has been conducted in Barcelona region since 2009.
• The report analyzes the entire tourist customer journey at Destination Barcelona.

The OTB has published the second study on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona. This study has been undertaken thanks to 9.714 surveys to visitors that stayed overnight in Barcelona surroundings between 2018 and 2019. Barcelona surroundings geographical area includes those territories within the tourist brands of Costa Barcelona, Barcelona landscapes, and Pirineus Barcelona.

The purpose of these surveys is to know the behaviour 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 surroundings has an average of 44,1 years old, university studies (54.1%) and travels mostly with the family (29.2%), as a couple (27.6% ) or alone (18.7%).

More than half of the tourists stay in hotels (63.6%), followed by those who stay in campsites (18.6%) and with friends and family (7.5%). The average length of stay is 5.5 nights.

The main purpose of travel is leisure (65.5%), followed by professional reasons (22.1%).

Those who stay the most in hotels are those who travel for professional reasons and the Americans, the British, the Italians, the Russians, and the Belgians, that usually visit the Vallès Occidental region. However, those who stay the most in campsites travel for leisure reasons, and they mainly come from Barcelona city or Holand and they stay in the Berguedà region.

The average rating made by tourists of the municipalities of Barcelona surroundings where they stayed is 8.3. 81.8% of the surveyed would recommend the destination municipality.

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

69.2% of visitors have not contemplated any alternative destination to the municipality they have visited and 1 out of 2 uses the Internet as the main source of information to plan the trip (50,7%). As for the way to book both transport and accommodation services, most of them have done it online directly with the company (59.4% and 41.5%, 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 € 188.9 per person and € 40.9 per person and day. Professional visitors, Russians, and Americans have a higher average expenditure during their stay than the rest and they usually stay in the Vallès Oriental region. Food and drink is the item in which the expenditure is higher, above internal transport.

The report also includes an analysis on the places that tourists visit or want to visit outside the municipality where they stay overnight in Barcelona surroundings: 41.3% of the surveyed tourists have made an excursion outside the municipality (25.7 to Barcelona city), a trend that is slightly growing.

Finally, it should be highlighted that 48.6% of the survey respondents have already been in the municipality before. The international tourists with the highest repeatability rate are the Dutch (55.2%) and the Belgians (46.3%).

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