• The new knowledge and research entity, promoted and created by the Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Regional Council, ​​Turisme de Barcelona, ​​and la Cambra de Comerç new membership, has been awarded in the "Innovation in Product and Service" category
• A year and a half after its foundation, the Observatory gathers the first recognition for its work in knowledge transfer to all tourism stakeholders

The Observatori del Turisme a Barcelona (OTB) has been awarded with the Alimara CETT Prize in the category of "Innovation in Product and Service", in recognition of the creation of a service, in terms of knowledge and tourism intelligence, with the aim to search for new sources of information that help to balance the tourist activity and to transfer knowledge to the tourist sector. The winners were announced last evening during the Alimara Night, at an event that took place at the Alimara Hotel, chaired by Miquel Alsius, president of the CETT group, and by the president of B-Travel, Jordi Clos.  

In this 35th edition of the Alimara CETT Barcelona Awards, organized by the CETT International Campus with the support of the B-Travel Tourism Exhibition, 49 nominations have been received and 16 Alimara prizes have been awarded.

The candidacy presented by Turisme de Barcelona "Observatori del Turisme a Barcelona: ciutat i regió. Consolidation of an expanding project" gathers, in this way, the first recognition to the entity that was presented in June 2017 as a result of the collaborative work of Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Regional Council and Turisme de Barcelona with the aim to promote knowledge and market intelligence in tourism of each of the organizations. One of the values ​​of the OTB is the purpose to give an overview of 'Destination Barcelona' that provides the needed knowledge to manage and to promote tourism across all of its domains.

A co-participated entity to generate knowledge of Destination Barcelona

The creation of this new knowledge platform is part of the Strategic Tourism 2020 Plan, which highlighted the need to create a tourism observatory that could improve the management and planning of the destination, reducing unwanted effects, improving the residents’ quality of life and the tourist experience for visitors.

The Observatori del Turisme a Barcelona is the tool that makes possible to transfer and to bring tourism knowledge together, something that in 2019 has been taken forward, beyond the cooperative work between entities. Therefore, thanks to the agreement signed last January 2019 between Barcelona City Council Barcelona, Regional Council and Turisme de Barcelona, ​​the Observatori acquires technical structure and sets its headquarters in Turisme de Barcelona. Thus, the ability to produce and manage knowledge for the whole destination is maximized. Besides, the Cambra de Comerç new membership has broadened the polyhedral vision and reinforced the dissemination nature of the project.

Most relevant studies

In these almost two years, the OTB has undertaken and published 11 studies among statistics and reports in relation to the tourist activity of Barcelona and its surroundings. Noteworthy, the studies that have been done about the tourist profile and habits, both in Barcelona city and its surroundings, as well as the Tourism Activity in Barcelona Destination Infographic and the study of the 2018 Barcelona City Online Reputation, in which the cultural resources of the city were specially recommend by tourists according to their online opinions. The 2018 iRON Online Reputation Index study, has for the first time analyzed more than 4 million online opinions on the main internet platforms about more than 15,000 city tourist resources. The study monitors three sectors: tourist attractions, which in the city obtain an 8.91 valuation; the accommodation, with an 8.24; and the restaurants, with an 8.13. In short, a study that reinforces the tourist intelligence system of the Barcelona City Council, ​​which now has more knowledge of the experience and the perceived quality of the city thanks to the contents generated by Internet users, mostly visitors and tourists. In addition, this same study has been undertaken for the different regions of Barcelona. In this case, the cultural resources of the province are valued the highest, with an 8.84. The main contribution to the tourist satisfaction is due to the tourist attractions, with an 8.59. In the case of accommodation and restaurants, both sectors obtain a remarkable overall rating, with an 8 score.