In March 2021, an improvement of the indicators of the tourist activity in Destination Barcelona has been registered, compared to February. This has been mainly due to the erase of the regional lockdown for bubble groups during the Easter holidays (end of March / early April). However, the activity is still way behind 2019 levels.

During March 2021, the accommodation offer in Destination Barcelona has increased in approximately 50 establishments and about 5,000 places compared to February, although the capacity has been -55% lower (var.21/19). This reduction keeps being more pronounced in Barcelona city (-61.9% in hotel beds) than in Barcelona region (-38.2% in the total analyzed number of beds).

The overnight stays figures have clearly improved in all types of accommodation compared to February in Destination Barcelona. However, the losses in the number of tourists remain significant (var. 21/19): -82.8% in hotel establishments, -41.5% in campsites, and -74.3% in rural tourism. It should be noted that the hotel establishments in Barcelona city have experienced a higher loss of tourists (-87.1%) than those in Barcelona region (-71.2%). On the other hand, the average length of stay in Barcelona city in homes for tourist use continues at its highest ever (8.2 nights), due to a possible conversion of these into seasonal rental homes.

Barcelona Airport has lost almost 7 million passengers (-86.1%) during the first three months of the year. Meanwhile, in Barcelona port, ​​the cruise activity remains interrupted. During the first three months of 2020, more than 198,000 passengers arrived on this means of transport. As for ferries, the drop in the number of passengers during the month of March remained was -62,9% (var. 21/19).

National tourism remains dominant in all kinds of accommodation: 3 out of 4 tourists in hotel establishments are Spanish, and almost all of them, in rural tourism and campsites. As for international tourism in Barcelona city, from January to March 2021, the arrival of French and Italian tourists stands out, although their proportion is quite far from the national tourists (70.2% reside in Spain, 11.2% in France and 2.7% in Italy).

Finally, in the accumulated annual ranking of countries from which passengers fly to Barcelona Airport, the arrival of passengers on domestic flights keeps being the most important one above the rest of the origins, in line with the accommodation data. These have been followed by passengers traveling from Morocco and Germany. The imposed measures to contain the British variant of Covid-19 have caused the UK to fall to the ninth position in the ranking.

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With the analysis of the different thematic areas, which offer a transversal vision of the sector, the Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona updates the monitoring of the tourism activity. This analysis complements the monthly report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Barcelona Destination. All data is presented in three geographical areas: Barcelona city, Barcelona region, and Destination Barcelona.

Consult the interactive report on the Latest data section: