Tourism of Barcelona foresees a summer 2022 with tourist figures very similar to those before the pandemic. “We think it will be a good summer after two very hard years and at 20% of normal activity. In two months there has been a very important change of scenery,” said the entity’s president, Edward Torresin an interview on channel 3/24.
“In February there were still damages due to omicron, but this April we have returned to normal,” confirmed Torres. “We still cannot say whether we will reach the levels of 2019 in the summer, but we will get closer”, stressed the president of Turisme de Barcelona.
No Russian tourism, but at pre-pandemic levels
The tourist profile in the Catalan capital is still quite similar to that before the pandemic, with the exception of russian tourism – due to war Ukraine– and Asian tourism, still with mobility restrictions due to covid-19. “These are two markets that add up to 10% of tourism in Barcelona, but if we take 90% of the remaining tourists, we are at pre-pandemic levels,” said the president of Turisme de Barcelona, who wanted to emphasize the rapid recovery of US tourism.
“This is a positive surprise. From the point of view of the US, it seemed to us that they might think that Europe is at war,” Torres pointed out, who also highlighted the good flow of visitors from usual issuing countries such as Francethe United Kingdom, Italy, Germany either Netherlands.
Extend the tourist tax
Eduard Torres has also claimed that the tourist tax don’t just fall back on accommodations and spread to other sectors such as restoration either trade.
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“Currently all the weight of the tourist tax falls on the accommodation sector and perhaps other sectors that also benefit from tourism could share a bit of responsibility with the tax,” Torres reflected aloud, pointing to the restoration, the commerce, museums, theaters and food-beverages.
About the increase in inflationthe president of Turisme de Barcelona recognized that will affect the economy in general, but that tourism could be “less affected” than other sectors. “Barcelona is in the process of recovery of the levels of tourist occupation that it had in 2019 and there is also a clear recovery in terms of prices”, Torres commented.