The tourism we would like and what we have and will have
When it comes to tourism, it's hard to be clear about it. The reality is what it is. Tourism represents nearly 15% of the Catalan economy and up to 12% of employment. And these figures, as is often the case in this sector, do not include the entire group of businesses and workers who also indirectly depend on it, which would possibly make the sector's impact even greater. According to Eurostat data, Catalonia is the EU region with the third most overnight stays by tourists. Between January and December 2023, in the last year with reliable data, it had 85.6 million overnight stays booked, by both Spanish and international tourists and with establishments of all kinds, from hotels to tourist apartments. In other words, we are talking about official figures that do not include the underground accommodation market, which also exists. This is a significant figure, quite similar to that of Adriatic Croatia, an increasingly popular destination that received more than 87.3 million overnight stays, and which is still significantly below the Canary Islands, which was the undisputed leader, with 95.5 million.
These last two cases are specific because they involve areas where tourism is the main industry, which in the Canary Islands also lacks seasonality thanks to a climate that allows establishments to be open year-round. In Catalonia, however, tourism is not considered the main industry and the economy is more diversified. However, it is one of the fastest-growing sectors and its impact is significant in terms of how it affects resident citizens in aspects such as housing, the quality of services, transportation, and the use of public space. The writer Marco de Eramo, in the interview that can be found in Cultura, puts it clearly: "The problem of a city is not that tourists come, but that the city thrives on tourism" because—the author adds—"The world's selfie– This means that it will soon die as a habitable city for its residents.
The figures are also clear when they show how some of the coastal tourist towns, such as Lloret de Mar or Castelló d'Empúries, are also the poorest in Catalonia because the type of employment, seasonal and with low wages, does not create wealth. And also, as the latest municipal census has shown, in Barcelona the young population with children is emigrating en masse because they cannot find housing or adequate public space for their families. The fact is that managing tourism, both coastal and urban, is not easy. Calls to make it more sustainable, to control it, to seek "quality" tourism are necessary and well-intentioned, but hardly effective.
The tourism we have is what there is, no matter how much we delude ourselves about what we would like to have. The tourism industry tends to operate on a wholesale basis and is highly sensitive to any change in safety or supply, which gives significant power to the sector's major players and makes management more difficult. We can therefore welcome the positive overnight stay figures we've had, but we must remain attentive to everything that needs to be improved to ensure a better visitor experience and, at the same time, ensure a clear and evident return to the general public.
