Music festivals, the highlight of the Destination’s cultural agenda in July

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

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

• Air capacity in Barcelona in July is expected to exceed 5.9 million seats (10.2% YoY)
• 70 cruise ships are expected to arrive at Barcelona Port this month, slightly behind of June 2023.
• The cultural and leisure agenda in the Destination will be featured by several music festivals (Festival Alma, Festival Grec, Festival Nits de Barcelona, Festival Vida de Vilanova i la Geltrú, Rock Fest, Canet Rock, Festival Cruïlla, Festival Terramar de Sitges, etc.) and other large concerts such as Luis Miguel, Ricky Martin, and Estopa. In sports, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will hold a new edition of the 24 Hours of Catalonia Motorcycling. As for culture and traditions, various popular festivals will take place (Les Neus in Vilanova i la Geltrú and les Santes in Mataró).
• Although the professional activity decreases in summer, in July the most crowded event will be the 18th Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists – EASA 2024 (2,000 attendees). Virtually no trade fairs will take place until September.
• In July, almost all the source markets included in the report have summer holidays: Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, etc.
• In the last month, Google searches for Destination Barcelona have registered similar levels to in 2023. The most popular online search terms keep being Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona city, and some coastal destinations, such as Sitges, Castelldefels, Garraf, and Cubelles, in Destination Barcelona.
• In the last month, Destination Barcelona has ranked 7th in accommodation searches and 8th in flights 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. 6 out of 10 bookings were for travelling as a couple.
• Bookings for stays in July are slightly behind of last year bookings for the same period in both Barcelona city and Barcelona region.
• In comparison with other European destinations, Barcelona city has a similar level of hotel bookings to Amsterdam, while Barcelona region is well below.

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