• In the second year of Covid-19, the recovery of the tourist activity began, especially from the second semester, although still below pre-pandemic levels.
• The number of tourists and overnight stays increased by nearly +50% compared to 2020 in Destination Barcelona, due to the progressive reopening of the tourism accommodation establishments.
• The number of passengers in infrastructures stood at similar levels to those for the 2000s.

The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona: city and region has published the first capsule of the 2021 Barcelona Tourism Activity Report, which provides the first data on tourist activity at the three geographical levels that the OTB works on: Barcelona city, Barcelona region, and Destination Barcelona. This capsule contains three chapters with data on accommodation, tourist demand, and infrastructures.

Tourism accommodation census

In 2021, the impossibility of applying for new accommodation licenses in Barcelona city due to the PEUAT (valid since 2017), provoked a reduction in the number of accommodation establishments in the city declined (-1.3%), for the second year in a row. However, the opening of new hotels, with previously granted licenses, compensated for the loss in bed places, caused by the cessation of the activity of many homes for tourist use (HTU), guesthouses, and inns. Therefore, by the end of December 2021, the city counted on almost 800 more beds than in the previous year (+0.5%).

On the other hand, in Barcelona region, more licenses were registered (+4.1% YoY). In this case, the growth in the number of HTU licenses was the most outstanding (+4.6%) and contributed to the fact that as of December 2021, there were around 3,000 new beds (+1.8%) compared to 2020.

As for the real available accommodation offer, the crisis caused by Covid-19 in the tourism sector led many establishments to close their facilities temporarily or during all year round. However, if at the beginning of 2021 there were just over 55,000 operational beds in Destination Barcelona, by the end of the year, this amount was doubled.

By type of establishment, hotels, guesthouses, and inns were the most reduced ones, in absolute figures, with almost -63,000 fewer available beds than the licensed ones, on an annual average.

Tourism accommodation demand

The tourism demand, it was strongly affected by the mobility restrictions again to contain the Covid-19, mainly in the first months of the year. As of May, thanks to the ending of the state of emergency first, and the Covid certificate implementation in July, the demand was gradually reactivated until October. The worsening of the Covid-19 situation in Europe and the inherent seasonality in the tourism activity caused a new setback in the arrival of tourists in the Destination as of November.

However, 2021 stood as the year of the beginning of the tourism activity recovery, with 7.6 million tourists and 21.4 million overnight stays in Barcelona Destination according to tourism accommodation available data, since it must be taken into account that there is no demand data for Homes for Tourist Use in Barcelona region or youth-hostels data in the whole of Destination Barcelona. These figures represented an increase in tourism activity of approximately +50%, compared to 2021.

The average length of stay, 2.8 nights in Destination Barcelona, was over the previous year (+0.1 nights), mainly due to the stay prolongation in Barcelona city (+0.2 nights).

In absolute terms, the hotels, guesthouses, and inns demand was the one that grew the most in the number of tourists (+1.9M), while the increase of overnight stays in Barcelona city HTU was especially remarkable (+2,6M). Campsites and rural accommodation also registered important growths, in a relatively talking (+60.3% and +45.9% respectively).

The bed supplies occupancy in Destination Barcelona grew to a limited extent in all types of accommodation, as despite the increase in demand, this was not significantly reflected in occupancies, because the operative offer was gradually expanded through the year.

Infrastructures

Due to travel restrictions and border closures to contain Covid-19, the infrastructures activity of Destination Barcelona in 2021 stood at similar levels to those for the 2000s.

Barcelona Airport received 18.9 million passengers, which means a YoY increase of +48.2%, yet far from pre-pandemic levels. Noteworthy is the gain of passengers on international flights, especially in the second half of the year, which have experienced a YoY growth of +496.0, while passengers on domestic flights, +33.5%. The offer of flights, with more than 160,000 operations, grew by +33.5% YoY.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona Port, the cruise activity restarted in June and, by the end of the year, the number of cruise ship passengers had increased by +161.9% YoY. On the other hand, ferries operated all year round, and the number of passengers in this means of transport experienced a more moderate increase (+48.4%).

Finally, international train passengers registered a gain of +46.5%.

More information: Barcelona Tourism Activity Report 2021 - Capsule 1