Some 1.3 million euros are to be allocated to spending under the Bus Offers Summer Improvement Plan and 2.6 million euros to the civic officers service for improving tourist experiences in places with large crowds of people.

A total of 181,089 euros are to be invested in the “El Paral·lel: a culture and arts destination ” project, during the first stage of the re-arrangement of the Drecera de Vallvidrera (just over 34,000 euros) and the signposting of the Can Soler de Collserola Nature Centre (6,161 euros).

A further 12,000 euros will be assigned to the interpreter and translator service at the complaints offices of the Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona [city pólice] in Ciutat Vella and 18,000 euros to an artistic operation carried out with the area’s organisations, called “Pintem els murs de la Casa Bech” [Let’s Paint the Casa Bech’s Walls].

Dialogue with the sector on the additional tax

A dialogue has been started in parallel with the sector for an agreement on the aim of the new tax for staying in the city and cruise disembarkations at the city’s port, after the Catalan parliament approved its creation.

The Full Municipal Council Meeting of September reached an agreement to call on the Catalan regional government to amend the Act on stays at tourist establishments so that Barcelona City Council could collect the proceeds from this new tax which, as the approved proposal pointed out, would be allocated to:

• Improving the monitoring of dwellings that offer rooms for tourist uses.
• Lowering the tourist pressure of the worst-affected neighbourhoods so they could recover their economic, social and cultural activities regardless of tourism.
• Create completely new content that could be developed in settings that enable better dispersals of tourist concentrations.