New permanent hiring in tourism continued to outnumber the temporary ones

The Barcelona Tourism Observatory: city and region, presents the monthly analysis of the main tourism activity monitoring indicators.

The main conclusions of the July update are presented below by geographical area:

Barcelona city

• Hotels and guesthouses supply accounted for 669 establishments and almost 87,000 available beds. This means almost the same number of beds compared to the previous month, but over the same month last year (+1.4% Var. 24/23).
• Although that the number of tourists and overnight stays in hotels and guesthouses decreased month-on-month, they increased in homes for tourist use (HTUs). This made the sum of overnight stays in these two types of accommodation to grow +2.4% year-on-year. 
• Both the number of tourists and the number of overnight stays in hotels, guesthouses and homes for tourist use (HTUs) grew month-on-month due to the inherent seasonality of tourist activity. Moreover, the average length of stay increased to 3.0 nights (+0.1 nights month-on-month) and occupancy in bedplaces in hotel establishments stood at 77.3% (+2.9 pp month-on-month) and at 65.3% in HTUs (+7.0pp month-on-month). Year-on-year, all indicators also grew, although a shorter stay (-0.2 nights Var. 24/23) caused overnight stays (+2.8% Var. 24/23) to increase at a lower rate than tourists’ (+7.1% Var. 24/23).
• At Barcelona Airport, 5.4 million movements of passengers were recorded (+6.4% month-on-month), well ahead of the same period of 2023 (+9.0% Var. 24/23 in passengers). The ranking of countries from which passengers flew to Barcelona Airport during this month was leaded by domestic flight passengers. Passengers flying from Italy ranked second, followed by passengers travelling from the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
• In Port of Barcelona, 453,000 cruise passengers were registered, falling month-on-month, due to a reduction in the cruise ship supply. In addition, this figures were also below July 2023 (-3.1%). On the other hand, ferry passenger movements, almost 260,000, increased +45.4% month-on-month, however -5.4 over last year.
• 85.4% of tourists in hotel establishments were international. 
• The typical tourist in the city of Barcelona¹ was a 34-year-old person, traveling for leisure (79.7%) and as a couple (30.2%). Their average expense kept over 100€ per person per day, +28.5 year-on-year. Most of this expenditure was invested in food and drinks (43.8%), followed by entertainment, leisure, and culture (23.0%) and shopping for clothes, footwear, souvenirs, and other items (21.4%).
• As for the job market, in tourism activity hiring grew month-on-month, yet temporary hiring increased more than the indefinite (+6.5% and +1.0%, respectively%). However, permanent hiring remained higher than the temporary and the registered unemployment kept fairly stable month-on-month.

Barcelona region

• The open accommodation supply in the region was +3.5% higher than in July 2023, with a total of 1,123 establishments and about 97,000 operating bedplaces.
• Both the number of tourists and overnight stays in July 2024 increased month-on-month. In addition, the number of stays in hotel establishments, campsites and rural tourism grew by +4.4% year-on-year. 
• The average length of stay was around 3.6 nights, which means an increase compared to July 2023 (+0.2 nights). Campsites continued to have the longest length of stay of all the types of accommodation analysed (4.7 nights), followed by hotel establishments (3.3 nights).
• 64.7% of tourists in hotel establishments in Barcelona region were international (+3.3pp month-on-month).
• The typical tourist in Barcelona region during this month¹ was a person aged 44, travelling for leisure (60.2%) and as a couple (30.2%). The average expenditure during the stay, 46.4€ per person per day, grew year-on-year (+14.5%). This expenditure was mainly spent on food and drinks (58.3%), followed by the shopping for clothes, footwear, souvenirs, and other items (18.2%).
• Both permanent and temporary hiring in tourism activity in Barcelona region decreased month-on-month, but at different rates (-11.8% y -2.2%, respectively). Permanent contracts also remained higher than temporary ones, and registered unemployment decreased by -0.6% month-on-month.

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¹ For more information on the profile and habits of tourists during June in Destination Barcelona, please click on the following link. 

Consult the interactive report: