The Barcelona Tourism Observatory: city and region publishes a new Destination Barcelona tourism activity forecast report (September 2024 edition).

The main conclusions of this new edition of the report are presented below:

• Air capacity in Barcelona in August is estimated to register 5.8 million seats (12.7% YoY)
• Near 100 cruise ships are expected to arrive at Barcelona Port this month, slightly ahead of September 2023.
• The cultural and leisure agenda in the destination will be highlighted by the start of the Manifesta 15, the European Nomadic Biennial (08/09-24/11) and the 2024 America's Cup (22/08-21/10). In terms of festivals and traditions, some summer festivals will be held, such as the Festa Major de Vilafranca (29/08-02/09), and La Mercè in Barcelona city (20/09-24/09).
• The congress and trade fair calendar will be reactivated after the summer break. In September, 30 congresses which could host about 60,000 attendees are confirmed.
• By the beginning of September, many source markets included in the report have school holidays: Spain, France, Italy, the United States, Canada, and Singapur.
• In the last month, Google searches for Destination Barcelona have registered similar levels to in 2023. The most popular online search terms keep being Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona city, and some coastal destinations, such as Sitges, Castelldefels, Garraf, and Cubelles, in Destination Barcelona. Among the most growing searches, once again we find concepts related to water such as beaches and aquatic parks.
• In the last month, Destination Barcelona has ranked 8th in bothn accommodation and flight searches in the online positioning ranking of international destinations.
• Hotel bookings made during the last month were led by the domestic market and bookings from the USA were the most frequent international bookings in Barcelona city, those from France, in Barcelona region. More than 6 out of 10 bookings were for travelling as a couple.
• Bookings for stays in September are behind of last year's bookings for the same period in both Barcelona city and Barcelona region. However, bookings for October and November show similar levels to last year's.
• In comparison with other European destinations, for the next quarter, Barcelona city has a similar level of hotel bookings to Amsterdam, while Barcelona region is well below.

More information: Destination Barcelona Tourism Activity Forecast (2024-IX)