Professional profile grows at leisure levels due to this month’s major professional events

The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona: city and region has published the monthly report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in the Destination of Barcelona for March 2026, which provides data on the monthly tourist activity about the three usual geographical areas that the OTB covers Barcelona city, Barcelona region, and Destination Barcelona.

In this report, we can see how the typical tourist profile who has visited Destination Barcelona is that of a man (65.4%), with an average age of 41.0 years, who has traveled for both leisure (46.9%) and professional reasons (43.6%) and who has already had visited the municipality previously (54.8%). While in Barcelona city the main reason for the visit was professional (50.2%), in the Barcelona region it was leisure in 59.5% of the cases.

As for the travel group, while in Barcelona city the most common group of tourists who came alone (34.9%) in the Barcelona region were those who came as a couple (49.4%), followed by those who travelled as a couple and with colleagues in Barcelona city (23.6% and 23,3%, respectively) and those who travelled alone in Barcelona region (22.3%).

The plane has been positioned, for another month, as the most used means of transport to reach the Destination Barcelona (69.7%), to the detriment of the private vehicle (18.9%) and the train (8.6%). In Barcelona city, 85.5% of tourists have arrived in the city by air, while in Barcelona region, 56.1% have done it by private car.

For another month, when traveling within the municipality, the majority of tourists in Destination Barcelona have chosen to do it on foot (32.6%), with on foot, metro and taxi being the main means of transport within the city (26.5%, 25.0% and 22.1%, respectively) and on foot (54.3%) in the region.

On the other hand, 11.8% of the Destination’s tourists have made an excursion outside the municipality of overnight stay. This proportion remained higher in Barcelona region (21.6%) than in Barcelona city (7.6%).

During the stay, which 4.0 days on average, doing cultural visits (59.2%), shopping (49.9%), going to the beach (40.8%) and work and business activities (39.7%) have been the most popular activities.

An 14.8%-increase in the expense during the stay per person per day has been observed compared to the previous months, with a value of €105.58. Also, as historically, most of this expenditure is still spent on food and drink, followed, in that order, by internal transport, culture and shopping.

The average overall rating of the city was 8.63 out of 10. The best rated aspects this month were the character and friendliness of the people (8.70), the personal security (8,44), the accommodation (8.40) and the bars and restaurants (8.40). Noteworthy that while in Barcelona city the character and friendliness of the people (8.69), the public transport (8.65), the shops (8.49) and the bars and restaurants (8.44) were the most highly rated items by tourists, in Barcelona region it was the personal security (8,75), the character and friendliness of the people (8.70), the natural environment (8,56) and the accommodation (8.51).

More information: Results report. Profile and habits of tourists in Destination Barcelona March 2026