Barcelona struggles with lesser tourists and revenue

Thursday, October 21, 2021

The UNESCO world heritage site, SagradaFamilia once used to witness huge influx of tourists. But with the Covid-19 pandemic,tourists visiting the site have reduced considerably. Same-day tickets, which were rare in the past, have become a norm these days.

The tourism scenein Barcelona has changed significantly from pre to post pandemic era. The city hosted around 5 million visitors annually before the pandemic. The immigration numbers at the Barcelona airport went up from 30 to 53 million between 2010 and 2019. In 2019, the city experienced a tourist boom with a record 14 million visitors.

However, the situation isn’t the same as before anymore. Manel Casals, the director general of Barcelona Hotel Association said that the tourism industry has suffered losses of around €2.7 billion ($3.1 billion) since the pandemic started. He further said that 40% of the city’s hotels have closed and the number of people staying in hotels has dropped from 60,000 to 13,000.

Other associated businesses with tourism have also been suffering considerably. Lack of tourists in Barcelona is affecting the construction of SagradaFamilia. Major portion of its funding has been obtained from the ticket prices. With lesser tourists, the project will get postponed which was supposed to be completed on the 100th death anniversary of its architect, Antoni Gaudi.

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