The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona updates the Destination Barcelona tourism forecast report as of 29/04/22. 

Covid-19 restrictions

In Catalonia, most of the restrictions that affected the tourism activity have been removed, except the use of facemasks in public transport.  

In Spain, passengers coming from the EU are allowed to enter with a EU Digital COVID certificate. 

Intercontinental passengers from no risk countries are accepted without any certificate. Passengers coming from any other country must present a vaccination or a recovery certificate.

Transportation offer

The forecasts show an increase in the number of seats operated worldwide through the next weeks, altough below prepandemic levels. However, it should be reminded that airlines continue to readjust their flight schedules week after week. In Spain, this week, the air capacity has stood at only -8.8% compared to the same week in 2019. At Barcelona Airport, 164 routes, 36 of them intercontinental, are currently operating.

During the following week, 31 cruise ships are leaving or making a stopover at Barcelona Port. In May about 118 cruises will operate in the city.

Tourist offer and professional events

By the end of March 2022, 338 hotels and 65,353  bed supplies were open in Barcelona city. As for the culture offer, 95.5% of the 89 monitored cultural facilities in Barcelona city are working.

There are currently 171 congresses confirmed for the upcoming years, 128 in 2022. In the meanwhile, about 100 applications are open until 2027.

Tourist demand

Over the last week, Google searches from Spain for Barcelona city have increased, while those for Destination Barcelona have slightly decreased. Most of the searches for both geographical areas kept coming from Catalonia.

From 13/04/22 to 23/04/22, the Barcelona flights and accommodation searches achieved their best positioning in Spain, France, Italy and The Netherlands. Destination Barcelona ranked 7th in searches of accommodation and the 6th in flights in the ranking of international destinations worldwide.

Finally, from 17/04/22 to 23/04/22, hotel reservations in Barcelona city stood, on average, at 72.1% compared to the series peak, which was in February 2022. These levels were lower than those of the previous week (72.3%). In Barcelona region, bookings stood at 83.1% compared to series peak, which was also in February 2022, and higher than those of the previous week, at 73.7%. Concerning their origin, international bookings exceeded domestic ones in both Barcelona city (73.5%) and Barcelona region (59.4%). The lead time in both geographical areas stood at 34 days.

Destination Barcelona tourism forecast (29/04/22)