The Barcelona Tourism Observatory: city and region, presents the monthly analysis of the main tourism activity monitoring indicators.

The main conclusions of the highlights of this update are presented below by geographical area:

Barcelona city

• Hotels and guesthouses supply accounted for 638 establishments and almost 84,500 available beds, which means a slight increase in the number of beds compared to the previous month (+1.2%).

• Both the number of tourists and the number of overnight stays in hotels, guesthouses and dwellings for tourist use (HTUS) grew month-on-month and year-on-year, in fact, a lengthening of the average stay with compared to February 2023 (from 2.9 to 3.0 nights), led the increase in overnight stays (+10.0% Var. 24/23) to be higher than that of tourists (+4.4% Var. 24/23). HTUs again recorded the longest length of stay (4.0 nights), while in hotels and guesthouses it was 2.6 nights. At the same time, occupancy in bedplaces stood at around 60.0% in both cases, +10pp over the previous month.

• At Barcelona Airport, more people travelled in February than in the previous month, and the figures remained over the previous year (+16.6% Var. 24/23). The ranking of countries from which passengers flew to Barcelona Airport in February was leaded by domestic flight passengers. Passengers flying from Italy ranked second, followed by passengers travelling from the United Kingdom, and France.

• At Barcelona Port, both cruise and ferry passengers decreased for the second consecutive month, due to the seasonal nature of the operation of this type of vessels. However, the accumulated cruise passengers during the first two months of the year exceeded those of the same period in 2023 by +8.0%, and ferry passengers remained fairly stable. 

• 2 out of every 10 tourists in hotel establishments in February in the city were domestic. The most frequent international tourists were the French (7.6% share), the British (7.0%), the American (7.0%) and the Italian (6.8%). 

• The large number of professional events held in the city this month, including the Mobile World Congress / 4YFN, led to a change in the type of tourist in Barcelona city¹ compared to previous months. Thus, the professional reason was the most frequent (45.0%) and people who travelled alone (33.8%) or with work colleagues (22.0%) were the most common. The average expenditure during the stay in the city increased to 116.0€ per person per day (+54.0% month-on-month). This expenditure was mainly spent on food and drink (45.2%), internal transport (18.4%) and the purchase of clothes, footwear and other personal effects (18.2%).

• Registered unemployment in the tourism activities remained slightly ahead of last year (+3.0%) and indefinite employment meant more than half of the new hiring (55.5%).
  
   

Barcelona region

• Hotels, guesthouses, rural tourism establishments, and campsites accounted for 880 available establishments and about 50,000 operational bedplaces, which means a reduction of around 6,000 bedplaces in one month and a year-on-year growth of +4.9% in number of beds in these types of establishments.

• The number of tourists in these types of accommodation not only increased month-on-month, due to the seasonal nature of tourist activity, but also year-on-year (+15.6% Var. 24/23). The average stay also increased slightly compared to February 2023 (from 2.2 to 2.3 nights), so overnight stays experienced a higher growth (+19.4% Var. 24/23).

• By type of establishment, campsites gained the most overnight stays in relative terms (+57.5% Var. 24/23) and recorded a higher average stay (3.3 nights), while hotel establishments grew by +16.4% (Var. 24/23) and had an average stay of 2.2 nights. Finally, rural tourism establishments, with an average stay of 2.1 nights, decreased in overnight stays oce again (-1.7% Var. 24/23).

• Just over half of the tourists in Barcelona region's hotel establishments were domestic tourists, so their proportion remained fairly stable in comparison to the previous month.

• The typical tourist in Barcelona region in February¹ was a 46-year-old person, who travelled for leisure (46.1%) and who travelled as a couple (36.2%). Their average expenditure during their stay decreased by -3.3% month-on-month, up to €45.2 per person per day, which were mainly spent on food and drink (70.7%) and internal transportation (13.1%).

• Unemployment in tourism remained slightly below the same period last year (-1.7%) and permanent contracts outnumbered temporary ones once again (59.4% vs. 40.6%).

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¹ For more information on the profile and habits of tourists during this summer in Destination Barcelona, please click on the following link. 

Consult the interactive report: