Will 'quality tourism' fix Barcelona's overtourism problem, or just rebrand it?

In Barcelona, the battle over tourism is visible and vocal. Graffiti on walls, slogans on T-shirts, and chants at the anti-mass tourism rallies that have made international headlines in recent years: 'Tourist, go home!', 'Ban Airbnb,' and even 'Stop brunch.' 

Despite protests, three out of every four residents in the Barcelona region have a positive view of tourism, which accounts for 12% of Catalonia's GDP. At the same time, there is widespread recognition of the negative effects of overtourism – rising house prices, overstretched public services, and the gentrification of local neighborhoods. 

Where there's less agreement is on how to tackle the problems. The latest effort from local authorities is a push for so-called "quality tourism." 

Covid exit strategy 

"The idea of quality tourism, or moving toward tourism focused on travelers with greater purchasing power, really took off as one of the exit strategies from the Covid crisis," Carla Izcara tells Catalan News. 

"And not just in Barcelona. In places like London, Paris, Eivissa (Ibiza), and Mallorca – even parts of Latin America and the Caribbean – there's been a race to attract high-spending tourists," says Izcara, a researcher with Alba Sud, a Barcelona-based center that studies tourism from a critical perspective. 

In Catalonia, the strategy includes promoting events such as the America's Cup sailing competition and trade fairs like the Mobile World Congress, alongside a planned expansion of Barcelona Airport, which authorities say will allow for more long-haul and premium flights. Cruise terminals at the Port of Barcelona are also being downsized – a move that will bring in more luxury vessels, according to Izcara. 

'This is Barcelona' 

Between 2000 and 2024, the number of international tourists visiting Catalonia nearly doubled, from around 12 million to almost 20 million, according to official data. 

Barcelona alone receives around 30 million visitors annually, according to the city council. 

The attempt to pivot to quality tourism is exemplified by recent changes to the slogans employed by local tourism bodies. 

After 15 years of 'Visit Barcelona,' the city's tourism agency unveiled a new motto last year, coinciding with the first day of the America's Cup preliminary regattas in the Catalan capital: 'This is Barcelona.'  

"We're stopping our calls to the world to visit us, and moving to asserting ourselves," Mateu Hernández, managing director of Barcelona Tourism, said at the launch. 

The goal is to highlight "what Barcelona is" – a city of traditions, sports, gastronomy, museums, and music festivals – and focus on quality tourism rather than the quantity of visitors. 

It's a similar story with the Catalan Tourism Agency, which launched a new initiative in July: 'More Catalonia, better tourism.' 

The plan focuses on four core goals: making tourism more year-round, more widespread throughout Catalonia, more varied, and with greater added value. 

It is a move "from volume to value," said Spanish tourism minister, Jordi Hereu. 

Miquel Sàmper, Catalan business minister, pointed to another aspect of the quality tourism drive: tourist behavior. 

"Visitors must behave like residents, with the respect residents deserve," he said. 

A different kind of tourist 

The flexible definition of quality tourism benefits policy makers, José Mansilla from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, tells Catalan News. 

"I think that these kinds of concepts are a success because they mean nothing and everything." 

"From an academic point of view, when you talk about quality tourism, you are talking about people that spend a lot of money in a tourist destination." 

For political administrations and the economic sector, Mansilla says, quality tourism can also mean projecting the idea of a different kind of tourism, or tourist. 

"They throw trash in the trash can, they don't spit on the floor, they don't drink a lot, they don't sing in the street." 

Bans on airbnbs and pub crawls 

Some of Barcelona City Council's headline measures to tackle overtourism – and promote quality tourism – include eliminating tourist flats like Airbnbs by 2028, doubling the tourist tax by 2029, and banning pub crawls across the city.  

Mansilla is skeptical that measures like these will attract higher-spending visitors. 

Theoretically, he explains, if you increase the price of everything, the middle class and the working class won't come because it's too expensive, but evidence from this summer shows that tourists simply adapt to rising prices. 

"They say, okay, we cannot afford to go to a restaurant every night, or we cannot afford a hotel in the city center in Barcelona, but we can go to supermarkets in order to buy stuff, and instead of sleeping in Barcelona we can sleep in a nearby town," Mansilla says. 

And Barcelona has already spent more than a decade as the most expensive city in Spain, he adds. 

Rather than truly aiming to attract "quality tourists," the idea behind quality tourism, Mansilla argues, is "to create a narrative for the people in Barcelona, who are not very happy with what's happening with tourism in the city." 

"The big lie" 

Whether or not the push for "quality tourism" succeeds, a deeper issue remains: drawing higher-spending visitors doesn't necessarily mean more wealth for the city. 

"For us at Alba Sud," Izcara says, "this is the big lie." 

"Just because tourists have greater purchasing power doesn't mean there's a greater redistribution of profits or greater economic benefit. In fact, the benefits aren't there in economic, or social, or environmental terms." 

"We see that luxury tourism doesn't increase wages or generate better working conditions," she explains. 

On top of that, Izcara points out, "many of these people travel by private jets or superyachts, which are among the most polluting modes of transport out there." 

José Mansilla agrees. "There are studies that say that precisely this kind of tourism is even worse for gentrification, touristification, and environmental impact," he warns, citing a report from the Barcelona Hotels Association which found that the more expensive the hotel, the more water guests use. 

Diversify, redirect, rethink  

Today, tourism accounts for nearly 12% of Catalonia's GDP, generates 16% of its jobs, and supports more than 126,000 companies. 

"It's true our economy depends on tourism," Izcara admits. "Not just Catalonia's but Spain's in general. And in places like the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, even more so." 

But, she argues, it's very risky to rely on the tourism sector, which is "highly sensitive to external factors, like rising violence around the world, or climate change." 

What, then, is the way forward? 

For Mansilla, Catalonia must "lose its dependence" on tourism and diversify its economy.  

"What we have to do is de-grow, but we can't de-grow easily and fast. We have to think about what kind of diversification strategy we need to implement in order to keep the economy working and people employed," he argues. 

Izcara believes much of the current tourist offer should be "redirected toward promoting local tourism to meet people's needs for leisure and enjoying their free time in their own area." 

"We're not saying all of it has to disappear," she says, "but maybe we need to rethink it – aim it at a different audience, who also want to enjoy their surroundings, nature, culture, and their holidays." 

Podcast

In our first video podcast, Filling the Sink looks at the latest strategy to make tourism work for the people who live here too: a shift toward so-called quality tourism.

 

You can also listen below, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or Spotify.