Sàmper considers that "there is no alternative" to tourism

BarcelonaThe tourism sector debate has returned to Barcelona with the sectoral conferences Tourism & Economy Barcelona Summit 2025, under the title A new resilient and sustainable tourism: Large cities and Barcelona's proposal. At this meeting, held in the Cosmocaixa auditorium, the mayor of Barcelona, ​​​​Jaume Collboni, opened the session by stating that the Catalan capital "has made a great change compared to 4 or 5 years ago" in the area of ​​tourism, because "decisions have been made to govern tourism, have quality tourism and eliminate its negative externalities."

He referred specifically to the regulatory decision to eliminate tourist apartments in 2028 and also to the tourist tax, "which represents a direct social return, because it is being used to air-condition public primary schools." "To have happy tourists, we must have happy citizens," he concluded.

For his part, the Minister of Business and Employment, Miquel Sàmper, reviewed the main figures of the tourism impact in Catalonia: it accounts for 15% of the Catalan economy and up to 12% of employment. "In 2024, tourism contributed €20 billion to Catalonia, a figure that represents 50% of the Generalitat's budget. Therefore, if someone wants to talk about tourismophobia, they should offer an alternative, and this doesn't exist," he asserted. "Spain and Catalonia will always be attractive because the food is very good here, there are beautiful beaches, incredible mountains, and we have a great historical wealth. Therefore, we must begin to coexist with tourism and ensure it has a better reputation," the minister asserted.

The president and CEO of Paradores, Raquel Sánchez, and former Minister of Transport and Urban Agenda, recalled that "tourism represents a 12% contribution to GDP" and emphasized the need to reflect on what tourism model is necessary in society. "We must reflect on the shift from a model in which we counted how many tourists came to each country to a model in which we consider what we want this tourism to be," she asserted.

In this sense, Lluïsa Moret, president of the Barcelona Provincial Council, asserted that "tourism cannot be a problem; it must be an opportunity and is also a challenge for public-private relations, with a real, integrated, and inclusive perspective."

Becoming a driver of change

For his part, the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, asserted that "Spain is a leader in tourism," and as such, "has the responsibility to work as a transformer of the model in all other countries." Thus, he emphasized that this is an important moment: "We are living in a moment of transformation: we are testing the decentralization of tourism, linked to diversifying experiences, and we must also digitalize it and redistribute the benefits territorially and socially."

Finally, the UN Secretary-General for Tourism, Zurab Pololikashvili, spoke at the conference virtually. He praised the Spanish tourism model and highlighted that last year the economic contribution per international visitor was €125 billion. He also noted that 2030, the deadline for achieving environmental commitments, is imminent and that "tourism must be one of the drivers of change, but these changes are slow."