The two most notable elements on the Tourism Consortium’s 2025 Action Plans are the promotion of culture through the project “Barcelona Art Season”, and offering advice and guidance to the Barcelona Convention Bureau (BCB) to attract business conferences linked to the city’s investment attraction strategy.

Two commitments linked to the need to awaken pride in the city, also with regard to the cultural offer of art, music and performing arts. ‘Barcelona Art Season’, together with ‘Barcelona Obertura’ are the first projects through which we aim to improve our city”, assured Mateu Hernández, managing director of the Consortium.

The fourth deputy mayor, Jordi Valls, highlighted the synergies between the tourism sector and the cultural sector, pointing out that around 70% of visitors to ICUB museums and cultural centres are international visitors: “The tourism sector has always recognised the importance of the cultural sector, but it is important that this works both ways, particularly at a time when tourism is at the heart of the public agenda and the focus of media and political debate”. In this regard, the deputy mayor and vice president of the executive committee of Turisme de Barcelona, considers that “the Barcelona Art Season that is being presented today aims to help strengthen the offer of art, music and shows in our city, it is one of the key tools in the Action Plan for 2025 and also shines a spotlight on the links between tourism and other sectors such as gastronomy, sport, congress tourism, which is of vital importance to the city”.

The director of the Barcelona Convention Bureau, Christoph Tessmar, announced that BCB’s priority is to attract business congresses and conventions (corporate sector) that are associated with the city’s investment strategy. The technological sectors inked to the PERTE Chip for microchips and quantum technology and the digital hubs, and the whole life sciences sector and electromobility all form part of these priorities. Tessmar also announced the launch of a legacy programme, aimed especially at congresses, fairs and conventions that come to Barcelona over the coming years.

Barcelona Art Season is launched

Turisme de Barcelona will begin 2025 with a major new alliance with museums and exhibition centres in Barcelona to promote the city as a cultural destination. Barcelona Art Season is the name of the new brand created to position the arts scene at an international level and to influence the global exhibition circuit. It is an initiative that arose from the art centres themselves as a means of coordinating and implementing a joint project to promote tourism and the city’s exhibition offer so Barcelona can excel as a cultural city. The project consists of identifying the exhibitions that can most boost the city brand in order to convince cultural tourists to choose Barcelona, also for its exhibitions, and at the same time enjoy the rest of the culture, gastronomy, leisure, architecture and sports the city offers. It is an initiative inspired by its predecessor “Barcelona Obertura”, promoted by Barcelona Global, which focused on classical music, working in collaboration with the Gran teatre del Liceu, L’Auditori and the Palau de la Música, which were present at the event..

So, Barcelona Art Season will serve as an umbrella for the whole of the city’s arts offer to raise its visibility, with a marketing, dissemination and communication plan to be carried out by Turisme de Barcelona which will have the support of all the facilities and institutions involved.

The plan is organised into different phases which will be implemented from now on, to coincide with the major exhibitions being held in the city. In fact, the Christmas campaign launched by Turisme de Barcelona this year already embodies the spirit of ‘Barcelona Art Season’. The claim is that “Winter Art Season” encourages visitors to come to Barcelona at Christmas time, drawn to the city by the major exhibitions MiróMatisse at the Fundació Miró, Art en Pedra at La Pedrera, and Madama Butterfly at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, to then discover a whole programme of exhibitions which will be held at the MACBA, the Picasso museum; the KBR of the Fundació Mapfre; the MNAC; the CCCB, or the concerts at L’Auditori and the Palau de la Música. A Christmas campaign that also promotes the city’s Christmas menus and New Year’s Eve and the various Christmas festivals, the Three Kings Parade, and the parks and streets that are lit up for Christmas. The campaign as been rolled out through a series of articles written by well-known columnists that make reference to Barcelona’s cultural, gastronomic and Christmas offer, featured in prominent European media outlets like Le Figaró, The Times, The Guardian or Living Italy.