Skift Take
Barcelona is rotating far from mass to quality tourist promo in the wake of regional outrage and pressure.
Dawit Habtemariam
Barcelona’s tourist board is replacing its 15-year-old slogan ‘Check out Barcelona’ with ‘This is Barcelona.’
The change in language marks a shift in strategy: Turisme de Barcelona had actually been promoting mass tourism– now it aims to specifically draw in travelers interested in the city’s history and culture.
“We put an end to a worldwide require them to visit us, and we do a step forward in highlighting us,” said Mateu Hernández, basic director of the Turisme de Barcelona, at an interview Wednesday.
The brand-new project launches on August 22, which coincides with the first day of the America’s Cup cruising competitors in the city.
” [It is] a radical change in how we promote Barcelona across the globe from the tourist office,” stated Hernández, according to Catalan News.
The office likewise introduced a new ad that highlights the city’s festivals, architecture, and other local destinations.
Barcelona Residents Push for’ Limitations on Tourist’Turisme de Barcelona’s pivot can be found in the wake of current large scale demonstrations in early July. Almost 3,000 demonstrators objected tourist’s negative effects of the city. Some protestors squirted tourists with water weapons.
Amongst some of the demands were a ban on short-term rentals, better working conditions in the industry, a reduction in international flights, a stop to new licenses to hotel designers, closing cruise terminals and ending tourist promotion and even dismantling Turisme de Barcelona.
Around 26 million travelers concerned Barcelona in 2023, generating EUR12.75 billion ($13.8 billion) in costs, according to Turisme de Barcelona.
This year, global flights reservations for Barcelona are up 18% for July and August, according to ForwardKeys, a travel information analytics firm.
Over this summer season, there have been large protests in other locations in Spain. Malaga, Mallorca and Menorca have actually seen enormous demonstrations versus mass tourism.
Skift checked out the motivations behind these demonstrations in a recent podcast: