Introduction: Barcelona is the capital of both the province and the autonomous community of Catalonia;
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid and the eleventh largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.6 million inhabitants, which amounts to 5 million when including ts metropolitan area.
With its 4.6km of beach and its singular architecture influenced by the well-known Catalan architect Autoni Gaudí, the city is a renowned international tourist destination.
In terms of the number of tourist arrivals, Barcelona is the fifth most visited city in Europe after London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, and ranks within the top ten most visited cities of the world.
Airport Connections
Barcelona’s airport - El Prat, located 15km away from the city center, is the second largest airport in Spain and the ninth largest airport in Europe in terms of passengers. In 2009, the airport completed an expansion project and built the new terminal T1 (500,000 m2), which gave the airport the needed
infrastructures and capacities to become one of the most important of the Mediterranean.
As an important European center in terms of air traffic, the El Prat airport hosts 84 airlines and operates as a hub for Vueling, the low cost-airline. During recent years, the airport’s passenger traffic has been continuously increasing.
The following chart shows the evolution of passenger traffic for the last seven years. We notice a decline in the number of national arrivals since 2011, due to the consequences of the economic crisis and to the growing number of national tourists who choose AVE (high-speed train) as mean of transportation.
Currently 73% of the passenger arrivals at the El Prat airport are international, with the EU countries
being the major emitters.
Railway Connections - Ave
Barcelona has several conventional and highspeed railway connections, which link the Catalan
capital with several major cities in Spain such as Madrid, Lleida, Murcia, Sevilla, among others, as
well as foreign cities such as Paris (the Barcelona-Paris route has been operating since December 2013 in collaboration with TGV).
Maritime Connectoins - Cruise and Ferry
The port of Barcelona is one of the busiest ports in the world, with 3.5 million passengers in 2014.
During this past year, 68% of the passengers that arrived to the port did so in a cruise ship.
DEMAND
Barcelona has registered an increasing tendency concerning demand since the 1992 Olympic
Games. The Catalan capital has registered more than 7.8 million tourists (+4% more than in 2013)
in 2014, and has been confirmed as the most visited city in Spain. National demand represents now one fifth of the total market (+6.6% compared to 2013).
Analyzing the countries of origin of foreign tourists, France is the main source country, followed by the UK, the US and Germany, in that order.
Regarding the number of overnight stays from 2010, Barcelona shows a growth of 15% and a CAGR of 2.8%, with 17.4 million overnight stays in 2014.
Barcelona has a high and consistent occupation throughout the year. The seasonality in the city is
mainly influenced by international demand, which reaches its maximum level during the summer months.
A factor that influences demand in a positive way, is the important and growing role of the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) segment in the tourism industry of Barcelona. In recent years, the constant increase in the number of events being held, has helped Barcelona to rank among the top cities in the world in terms of events and congresses hosted.
One of the major events is the Mobile World Congress GSMA, which is held at the Fira de Barcelona at the end of February and which results in an increase in the number of overnight stays of more than 8% during that month.
Read the full report here.
Reinhard Wall is the Director Asset Management, Spain, Madrid.
Email: rwall@horwathhtl.com
www.horwathhtl.com