Barcelona to invest €1 million to promote Catalonia and its products to tourists

Barcelona City Council will allocate €1 million to the "Barcelona Capital" programme. The initiative aims to improve the connection between tourists staying in the city and the rest of Catalonia.

The programme, which includes several projects and will be developed by the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, seeks to increase visitors' awareness of the region's gastronomy and wine.

The proposal – from Esquerra Republicana's city councillors – aims to address the fact that only 8.8% of tourists staying in Barcelona travel outside the city and, among them, almost all remain within the Barcelona province.

Barcelona's deputy mayor of economy, housing, finance and tourism, Jordi Valls, said the programme aims to improve the territorial distribution of tourism and the economic return it can generate for the whole of Catalonia. 

He also stressed the importance of expanding opportunities to connect this demand with local producers by "stimulating the consumption of local products and gastronomy."

The director of the Tourism Consortium, Mateu Hernández, pointed out that "we have a great opportunity to share who we are, what language we speak, what gastronomy we have and what traditions make us special."

To promote this initiative, the website "This is Barcelona" will be used to showcase excursions from the city to different parts of Catalonia. 

There will also be additional promotion of Catalan wine and olive oil, aimed mainly at professional tourism and the so-called MICE sector (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) that visits the city.