The 2017 Annual Report Presents a Positive Assessment of a Complex Year

17-08-2018 | Turisme de Barcelona

The Annual Report and Financial Statements for the 2017 financial year were presented this month (July), just before the summer holiday period, in a year marked by the impact of the 17 August attack and the events of 1 October. Thus, while the tourism industry performed well in the first quarter of the year, this tendency changed particularly in the last quarter, even though there were already some clear signs of deceleration in certain sectors before summer. Although complex, 2017 ended on a positive note.

In terms of demand, according to the official figures from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), taking into consideration all accommodation types, the city of Barcelona ended the year with a 2.6% rise in the number of tourists. Turisme de Barcelona, with figures from the city's hotel association, closed the year with a total of 8,884,550 tourists who stayed in hotels, with 81.3% hotel occupation.

In terms of source markets, Spain continued to occupy the top position, with a 20.4% share (-5.3% compared to 2016). Among international visitors, together accounting for 79.6% of the total, those from the United States rose to first position with a 10.6% rise. European countries dropped around 5%, or in the case of the Germans as much as 10%. One market which proved to be recovering in 2017 was Russia, closing the year with growth of 18.4%.

In terms of the reason for travelling, leisure tourism once again became the main reason for tourists coming to Barcelona, at over 60% of the total. The strength of the destination was demonstrated by business tourism: by the end of the year 2,134 meetings had been held, 8.1% more than in during the previous year and with an impact of 1.8m.

The assessment of the city was the highest in the series. Architecture continued to receive the highest scores, with a score of 9.3, followed by culture at 8.9.

With respect to the annual financial statements, the budget earnings and operating earnings from Turisme de Barcelona's activity closed with a positive balance of 1,040m.