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