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Barcelona launches campaign to win back US tourists

Hi all, I though I would share an interesting article from El Pais (in English), which details the plans to entice vaccinated American tourists back to Barcelona. I didn't know that before the pandemic, Barcelona received more tourists from the United States, than from any other country. More importantly they also spend the most money lol!

From the article:

Reports from the Barcelona tourism observatory are clear: 16.9% of all tourists who visited the city and stayed in a hotel in 2019 (the last full year before the pandemic was declared) were from other parts of Spain – a total of 1,612,487 visitors. In second place, at 11.6%, were Americans (1,103,996), followed by the United Kingdom at 8% (763,627). In terms of the number of nights spent in hotels, Americans came first, with 2,393,284 nights in 2019 (12% of the total).

“First the approval, as soon as possible, of the Green Passport,” in reference to the EU document that will prove someone has been vaccinated. “This should be ready, at the latest, at the start of June. Simultaneously, there should be European Commission agreements with third countries so that vaccinated tourists can come.

In September we have in-person meetings in the US such as the IGLTA [International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association] summit of LGBTQ+ tourism in Atlanta and a few promotional events in California,” the tourism director explained, expressing her hopes that her board will be able to promote Barcelona among US tourists.

You can read more here: https://english.elpais.com/economy_and_business/2021-04-27/barcelona-launches-campaign-to-win-back-us-tourists.html

Posted by
33766 posts

is the Super League still a thing? I thought it died 2 days after birth.

Posted by
7909 posts

Rough math suggests that the Americans, on average, stayed just 2 nights in a Barcelona hotel room, before moving on. Or couples spent a single night. Or, if Americans stuck around, they didn’t continue with a hotel. How many folks on this Forum visited Barcelona for that short a time?

Posted by
571 posts

Rough math suggests that the Americans, on average, stayed just 2
nights in a Barcelona hotel room, before moving on. Or couples spent a
single night.

Cyn -- I also had the same mental math/thought, so went digging for the original report just in case.

The original report is here (a PDF, in Catalan, Spanish and English) with other reports available here. The 1,103,996 figure comes from page 76 (Tourists in hotels by country of residence) and the 2,393,284 figure comes from page 80 (Overnights in hotels by country of residence). It does imply a shorter average stay than I would have thought!

Posted by
27951 posts

People taking cruises who have no idea about the sights in Barcelona?

Posted by
4180 posts

Acraven, that's what I was thinking too. Just this past week there was a first time poster who was ending their cruise in Barcelona, but wanted to immediately make a b-line to another city in Spain, on the opposite side of the country no less!

Posted by
169 posts

Carlos & Acraven ; completely agree with your assumption.

We have cruised from Barcelona several times and have been amazed at the number of people who "just arrived this morning" or "last night". Could understand if most were youngish and still working - but most were either just retired or VERRRRRY retired. We figured it was probably most's first and (maybe) only time in Europe.

Also - figure 2 persons per hotel night and the nights per stay double (?) I'm thinking.

Posted by
7132 posts

Carlos - after making a b-line to Sevilla the same poster hinted they’d return to Barcelona after Sevilla to spend a few days. I don’t understand why they don’t see Barcelona first, then Sevilla, and leave from there. I’ll just be happy if Spain opens up.

Posted by
2583 posts

We stayed 3 nights after ending our transatlantic cruise in Barcelona which I think was longer than the majority on the cruise. I don't know if we will ever get back but we certainly wouldn't mind a few more days there. Interestingly enough, several on the cruise were getting immediately on another cruise and heading back to the US.

I'm a private tour guide in Mallorca working with a lot of American cruise ship passengers (pre-covid), and many begin the cruise or end it in Barcelona. So that would certainly affect the numbers. There are also a number of important international fairs in Barcelona. And everyone loves Gaudí!

Posted by
2026 posts

Actually, our tour guide told us that. And walking the streets, I could have sworn I was in America. Probably why I prefer Madrid even though Barcelona is prettier and has my favorite Spanish soccer team.

Posted by
11561 posts

Cruise ship mentality- what a waste of an opportunity to visit Barcelona. We stayed a week at the end of a six week long trip that started in Lisbon. I spoke with a Spanish travel agent who lamented the arrival of cruise ships in Barcelona.