Large professional events lead tourism activity in February at Destination Barcelona

The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona updates the Destination Barcelona tourism forecast report as of 31/01/23.

Connectivity at the destination

• International air capacity: The worldwide flight air supply shows a recovery of around 94% for the next 3 months (compared to prepandemic levels).
• Flight offer at Barcelona Airport: Barcelona is currently served by 61 airlines flying to 149 destinations, of which 35 are intercontinental.
• Cruises at Port de Barcelona: 20 cruise ships are expected to arrive in Barcelona in February.

Agenda

• Culture and leisure events: The most important events of Destination Barcelona in February will be the Fira de la Candelera in Molins de Rei, the Llum Barcelona Festival in Barcelona city and the events related to Carnival in different municipalities of Destination Barcelona.
• Professional events: There are currently 130 congresses confirmed for the upcoming years, 106 of which in 2023. In the meanwhile, about 100 applications are open until 2027. In February, major professional events such as the IoT Solutions World Congress 2023 (31/01/23-03/02/23), the Integrated Systems Europe – ISE 2023 and the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2023 (27/02/23-02/03/23), will take place in Destination Barcelona. These could attract, altogether, around 200,000 delegates.

Interest for the destination

• Online search trends: Over last month, Google searches slightly have increased for both Barcelona city and Destination Barcelona. The searches level has remained slightly lower than in 2019.
• Positioning of the destination in online searches: In the last month, Destination Barcelona has ranked 10th in the ranking of international destinations for accommodation searches and 9th for flights. This is an improvement on the positioning achieved in the previous month.

Accommodation demand forecast

• Seasonality and hotel bookings lead time: Over the last month, hotel bookings for both Barcelona city and Barcelona region have increased sharply. The lead time for bookings made in January was 57 days in Barcelona city and 58 days in Barcelona region, higher in both cases than in the previous month.
• Origin and travel group: International bookings in January have exceeded domestic bookings in Barcelona city (68.5%), while in Barcelona region, domestic bookings have been the most frequent (63.3%). More than half of the bookings made are for travelling as a couple.
• Dates and length of stay: Currently, the level of bookings for the next 3 months is above the level recorded last year. The average length of stay for bookings from February to April is 3.4 nights in both Barcelona city and Barcelona region. 
• Benchmark: Barcelona city and Barcelona region are, respectively, in the third and the last position in the ranking of hotel bookings of European destinations analysed for stays during the next three months. Both, the volume and average ADR for Barcelona city, are at similar levels to Madrid for bookings during this period.
   

Destination Barcelona tourism forecast (31/01/23)