Destination Barcelona ready to host 57,000 congress attendees in November

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

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

• Air capacity in Barcelona in November is estimated to register 4.8 million seats (+6.9% YoY)
• About 80 cruise ships are expected to arrive at Barcelona Port this month, slightly ahead of November 2023.
• The cultural and leisure agenda in the destination will be highlighted by the celebration of the European Nomadic Biennial Manifesta 15 (08/09-24/11). As for festivals and traditions, it is worth mentioning the celebration of several festivities related to la Castanyada (31/10-01/11). In sports, different runs will be held in the city of Barcelona (Cursa Montjuïc-Tibidabo, Challenge Barcelona Triathlon, 25a Cursa de Bombers and Women’s Run), the Racing Weekend at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and two FCB matches at the Olympic Stadium (one against RCDE Espanyol and the other in the Champions League). In addition, Bryan Adams will visit Palau Sant Jordi (12/11) and a new edition of Experimental Rec Stores will take place in Igualada (06/11-09/11).
• The congress and trade fair calendar will be highly active. In November, 31 congresses which could host about 57,000 attendees are confirmed. The most outstanding ones will be the Smart City Expo World Congress/Tomorrow Mobility World Congress (25,000 pax) and IBTM World 2024 (15,000 people).
• At the beginning of the month, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are recording half-term school vacations for a few weeks. In the latter two cases, these are regional vacations. In addition, the United States will have a 4-day long weekend to coincide with Thanksgiving at the end of the month (11/28-01/12).
• In the last month, Google searches for Destination Barcelona have registered higher levels than in 2023. The most popular online search terms keep being Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona city, and Barcelona, Sitges, and Castelldefels are the most searched municipalities of Destination Barcelona. Among the most growing searches related to Barcelona city, we find concepts related to the FC Barcelona (beaches and aquatic parks), while between those related to Destination Barcelona, we can find towns such as Mura or Sitges.
• In the last month, Destination Barcelona has ranked 9th in 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 half of the bookings were for travelling as a couple, although their proportion has decreased during the last month.
• Bookings for stays in Novembrer in Barcelona city are below last year’s same period, while in Barcelona region, ahead of them. 
• In comparison with other European destinations, for the next quarter, Barcelona city has a similar level of hotel bookings to Paris, while Barcelona region is well below.

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