Improving and distributing tourism evenly with the Barcelona strategy

The City Council has presented its Sustainable Tourist Destinations Strategy, the project for the 2022 call by the Spanish government through its Sustainability Strategy for destinations, aimed at transforming the sector through an investment of 1.9 billion euros. Action planned by the city represents an investment of 50 million euros in Next Generation funds, pursuing four main goals: a more even territorial spread of tourist activity, the creation of new conceptions, the improvement of tourist mobility and innovation.

13/05/2022 14:55 h

Ignasi Robleda Vives

The 21 projects outlined represent a range of actions with a broad geographical reach, focusing particularly on the Besòs, Collserola, the coastline and Montjuïc. Other cross-cutting action is also planned to evenly distribute tourism and prompt innovation in going digital, sustainability and mobility.

  • Coastline: in line with the goal of the green and sustainable transition, action here is aimed at making beaches more natural, improving accessibility and safety and adapting them to climate change. The project to improve the beaches and the bathing area at the Fòrum entails an investment of 4 million euros.
  • Collserola and Besòs: with an investment of 5,479,750 euros, the idea is to add vitality to the Parc Natural de Collserola and the riverbank of the Besòs through environmental recovery and the historical recovery of different tourist attractions.
  • Montjuïc: with a budget of 10,315,000 euros, the plan here is to boost this large public park, improve accessibility and attract visitors linked to culture, sport and the natural environment.
  • Sustainable mobility: action here is designed to integrate uses and tourist mobility into the city’s mobility model, with a budget of 8,492,320 euros to help fund three projects.
  • New evenly distributed options: the goal is to add more tourism options with new points of competitive interest to help provide balance in a polycentric city. With a budget of 9,789,941 euros, up to six projects are planned in this sphere.
  • Innovation: the five projects in this field have a combined budget of 10,466,001 euros. A series of actions are planned to comprehensively help the sector go digital, with a broader vision embracing the private and public ecosystem linked to the visitor economy. Action here will be implemented by the Barcelona Tourism Consortium.

Fifty million euros in investment

The call by the state plan for sustainability in tourist destinations is aimed at local organisations and entails funding of 1.9 billion euros between now and 2023. Of this amount, 194 million corresponds to Catalonia, with a maximum of 50 million euros available for Barcelona. As major urban destinations, the Catalan capital and Madrid are in a category of their own due to their singularity.

Once the strategy has been put forward for the call, it will be evaluated by the Secretary of State for Tourism and the Government of Catalonia.