Admired for its singular beauty, the town of Cadaqués resists losing one of the most cherished distinctive features by its neighbours and that makes them feel most proud: its particular "salty talk", with a vocabulary and expressions so genuine that it is considered a dialectal variety with its own name: Cadaquesenc. Although it is one of the fishing villages on the Girona coast where the "salty talk" has been best preserved, largely thanks to its geographical isolation, Cadaqués is finding it increasingly difficult to preserve its linguistic uniqueness due to the homogenizing power of social networks, the pressure of tourism, immigration, and demographic changes. "If Catalan is in danger, imagine Cadaquesenc!", warns philologist Pep Vila, author of the book Paraulari de Cadaqués.

As Aena is about to approve the investment plan for airports for the next five years and with the tourist season in full swing, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has argued that tourism paves the way for high value-added industries. "If we didn't have tourism, many sectors would suffer, and a lot. The knowledge sector for sure, and exports, too," assured the president of the institution, Josep Santacreu, this Monday.

Housing problems, saturation of public services, road collapse, closure of local businesses, and a rampant increase in low-skilled and poorly paid jobs. This is the result of the "anything goes" and "only growth and making money matters" mentality behind the exorbitant explosion of tourism in the Balearic Islands, but also in cities like Barcelona or Florence. How to regulate tourism – without giving it up, but also without dying from success – and how to minimize the damage of one of the global industries are the topics addressed by Guillem López Casasnovas, Professor of Economics at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and Joana Maria Seguí, geographer at the University of the Balearic Islands, at the event From Paid Holidays to Tourismphobia, organized by the newspaper ARA and the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) and moderated by the deputy director of ARA, Elena Freixa.

Taking advantage of the attention generated about the Sagrada Família due to the Pope's visit this week, it has come to light that, until a few months ago, 70 of the tourist guides who taught about the temple were false self-employed. Last December, Labor Inspection forced the two companies responsible for the service to regularize the situation of the professionals, according to a statement from the Col·lectiu Ronda issued this Monday.

Hotels Bestprice has culminated its incentive plan through shares, which includes chambermaids and reception and maintenance staff, in addition to executives. The Catalan hotel chain's program, which extends to practically the entire workforce, has been promoted by the board of directors "as a formula for recognizing the commitment, effort, and extraordinary contribution of professionals who have played a relevant role in the company's evolution in recent years," according to a statement. According to company sources, this measure benefits around 80% of the workforce, which is who could benefit from it. The only requirement to do so is to have been working at the company for one year or more.

Tourism has become an opportunity for the cultural projection of cities and a source of funding for many cultural facilities, and in Barcelona it contributes to internationally reinforcing its heritage, creativity, and identity.

Discovering Europe without worries and with the convenience of having everything organized is the perfect proposal for the second half of the year. From Barcelona, these short and medium-distance trips offer cultural routes, urban getaways, and itineraries through the most attractive corners of the continent, always with an accompanying guide, all visits included, and full board. A comfortable, safe, and enriching way to travel, designed to enjoy each destination with peace of mind and without unforeseen events.Eurovacances Travel, with 40 years of experience in the sector and with three offices –Barcelona, Granollers and Girona–, offers you proposals along these lines for the months of September, October and November.

Tourism has become an opportunity for the cultural projection of cities and a source of funding for many cultural facilities, and in Barcelona it contributes to internationally reinforcing its own heritage, creativity, and identity.

There are territories that are explained with words. And there are others that are better understood through the senses. Lleida is part of this second group: a land rich in contrasts, marked by the climate, the farming tradition, and a gastronomy that turns local produce into cultural heritage.Today, as travelers seek more authentic, sustainable experiences connected to the land, the lands of Lleida are reclaiming a different way of doing tourism. An invitation to slow down, discover open landscapes, share meals, and reconnect with what is ours. Because choosing Lleida is also choosing landscape, choosing flavor, and choosing quality and authenticity.

In the heart of the Empordà plain and in the middle of the bay of Roses lies the municipality of Castelló d’Empúries, a town that brings together as its own and unique identity three different but complementary areas: the historic center of the count's town, the residential marina, and the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà. This symbiosis between the medieval and monumental past, the tourist offer, and the natural heritage represented by Castelló d’Empúries, Empuriabrava, and the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà makes the municipality a top-level family tourist destination, where visitors can equally enjoy culture, leisure and commerce, and nature.

The towns and cities of the province of Barcelona are ideal for proximity, conscious and sustainable tourism, and you will find a very diverse range of quality activities and services to satisfy the most demanding.

Global tourism has entered a zone of permanent turbulence. We are no longer talking about a conjunctural crisis, but about a reconfiguration of the rules of the game. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), one in every seven travelers on the planet passes through the hubs of the Middle East (Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi), points that have suffered massive blockages and diversions due to instability in the Middle East. This situation not only affects airports, but also drives up the price of travel. Fuel already accounts for 30% of airlines' costs and, as Pedro Aznar, Professor of Economics and Finance at Esade, warns, the increase in the cost of flying will hardly be reversible, although it cannot increase indefinitely.Security has no discount

Faced with this scenario, Catalonia emerges as a "refuge destination" that is not the result of chance but directly responds to the traveler's psychology. Pedro Aznar's analysis is categorical, tourism is not a basic necessity, but an activity based on enjoyment where the perception of safety is non-negotiable. So the traveler does not give up long-distance travel, but shifts their objective if the area is not safe. "If geopolitics constantly changes and the perception of many tourists is that the Middle East is not safe, it can have relevant effects, which are also not compensated by price discounts. Families, especially, prioritize certainty." In this way, instability in the Middle East or the Eastern Mediterranean acts as a driver that displaces flows towards more stable areas, as is the case in Catalonia. According to Jordi Vinyoles, vice-president of the Corporate Association of Specialized Travel Agencies (ACAVE), in this context Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have positioned themselves as some of the beneficiaries. “Events can be changing, but in our country, there will clearly be an increase in tourism demand this year,” he assures. This is a movement confirmed by the executive director of the Catalan Tourism Agency (ACT), Patrick Torrent, who details that cruises that were supposed to call at the Eastern Mediterranean are now looking for ports in Barcelona or Tarragona, and that even corporate events planned in the Persian Gulf are changing latitude towards Catalan territory.

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Summer in Catalonia is being painted with new colors. It's no longer just about couples with children or groups of friends, a growing wave of single travelers and single-parent families has been transforming the sector for a long time, but little by little. According to Idescat data, the demographic reality is that already in 2021 in Catalonia, 802,800 people lived alone (26.4% of the total households) and 373,500 were single-parent households. These are almost 1.2 million family units looking for a different way to enjoy holidays and leisure, and they are driving a market that is growing annually at a state level. This emergence contrasts with a statistical paradox. Divorce petitions in Catalonia fell by 9.1% in 2025. But the data could be misleading. The decline in marriage has gone from a rate of 5 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants in the 90s, to 3.45 registered in 2024. And the rise of de facto couples (350,200 households in 2021) means many breakups go unnoticed by the courts. Furthermore, factors such as the housing crisis could be slowing down official proceedings, but not the reality of separation.Faced with this scenario, the tourism sector is evolving. From the Catalan Association of Specialized Travel Agencies (ACAVE), it is observed how the single and single-parent family segment has broken old stigmas. It is no longer about people looking for a partner, but rather mature travelers seeking a social experience, identifying with a group, and optimizing costs. It is a specialized market where between 60% and 70% of bookings are made by women, a fact that has even led to the creation of exclusive products for the female audience, whether they are solo travelers or mothers with children. A journey that shows a life changeFor an adult facing parenthood alone, vacation logistics can be a difficult mountain to climb. Initiatives like La Tribu, created by Patricia Moya a decade ago, have gone from Meet-up groups to massive support networks where travel is just an excuse to "bond". Patricia, who has managed this growth especially since the pandemic, maintains that the project is not born out of regret, but out of the need to normalize separation and find willing hands to help when surveillance or emotional support is needed.This new travel culture requires a very specific rhythm and social environment. For example, ACAVE highlights that the growing offer focuses on small groups with facilitators who mix cultural focus with leisure spaces like theme parks. This is what Eduard Martín, separated a year and a half ago, was looking for his 5-year-old daughter in a space like La Tribu: "an environment where she would have children to share with besides me, and I could enjoy little moments" of decompression with other adults. For parents like him, the added value of having monitors on stays on the Costa Brava or in Sort allows that, while the children play, the adults can socialize in a human and organic way, sharing experiences of a life change that, even though painful, becomes lighter in community.“Human contact is vital for mental health.” Carme Garcia Gomila, psychoanalyst doctor of the SEP (Spanish Society of Psychoanalysis), points this out by quoting the renowned psychiatrist Wilfred Bion, according to whom “human beings do not get together to do things, but rather we do things to be together”. If parents are calm and well accompanied, children will also be better, and in these spaces “the whole family, both children and adults, are cared for by a larger entity that helps them to relax and also promotes communication between parents and children.”Although the group is mixed, Laura, who has been participating in La Tribu with her daughter for years, observes a curious dynamic: “Out of 50 families, maybe we are 35 mothers. It's harder for fathers to get involved, but once they do, they become very integrated.” Eduard confirms this from the other side: “Sometimes it's more difficult for the adult than for the children. They integrate right away, but it's harder for the adult to take the step. When you join, it's great, because you end up explaining what happened to you and sharing it.”Garcia describes this process as “liberating and cathartic,” especially because nowadays people are very lonely and their closest networks don’t always know how to handle a breakup. “And if, in addition to taking trips, these groups have continuity afterwards, very strong bonds of friendship are created between parents and children that greatly favor their well-being”. Human contact against digital fatigueBeyond rest, the ultimate purpose of these meetings is emotional identification. As Patricia explains, it's about finding “similar families. You are with your child in a new life and you want to meet people in the same situation”. Perhaps for this reason, when it comes to romantic love, the group maintains a delicate balance. “People avoid it quite a bit, because there are already apps for that and here they try not to complicate things,” points out the organizer. In fact, Laura also emphasizes the importance of preserving this single character to respect the grief and often difficult experiences that many carry in their backpack, and to prioritize human quality and the absence of technology over affective-sexual search. This solidity of the model is what leads Eduard to consider that, even if he had a partner in the future, he would continue seeking this travel format because “it brings a plus that breaks the monotony” of the traditional nuclear family.  “Many divorced people are fleeing dating apps looking for deeper connections and meeting people in a more empathetic environment than in an app or digital platform,” explains Carme Garcia, who highlights these spaces for the possibility they offer to establish broader human contact. “In these cohabitation spaces, the purpose is more open; a relationship can develop, but it is not the specific goal of 'hooking up' that previous 'singles' trips had.” Furthermore, she recalls that there is no need to force new relationships with desperation, since “if a project has gone wrong, you can spend a season alone, with friends, and see what you need”. The children's mirror Ultimately, this shared environment allows children, the main protagonists, to build a space where they can better understand each other among peers and normalize growing up between two homes. And this is, perhaps, the most prized value: "they create their own tribe," says Patricia, a space where they normalize the situation of living with separated parents. Carme Garcia recalls that, moreover, these "tribes" make up for the lack of extended families from before, where many cousins would gather. Now families are smaller, perhaps with a couple of cousins, so sharing spaces with children alike, with single parents, makes them feel they have found their own space. A sector that still looks to the pastDespite the maturity of this demand, they denounce that the hotel sector still drags the burden of the “2+2” model. “That’s why many families look for groups like ours”.  Patricia regrets that many single-parent families feel psychologically out of place in traditional settings where tariffs penalize the single parent with the controversial individual supplement, or forcing them to pay the price of an adult for a child. ACAVE, for its part, points out that some establishments are beginning to offer facilities outside of the high season.The success of these initiatives shows that future tourism in Catalonia is no longer measured solely by overnight stays, but by the ability to generate networks. A model that must be unique and sustainable to adapt to an increasingly less uniform society, and which finds in shared travel the best tool.

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For decades, the collective imagination of Catalan summer has been inseparable from hot sand and scorching sun, but with fresh water. However, this idyllic postcard is cracking under the weight of meteorological data that paints a scenario of accelerated tropicalization. Climatic comfort, that invisible asset that made the Catalan coast the favorite refuge of millions of people, is being lost.The data from the latest Seasonal Climate Bulletin are conclusive: the summer of 2025 has been crowned the warmest in the 121 years of data from the Ebre Observatory. This is not an isolated event, but a trend where century-old records are broken with alarming frequency. Aleix Serra, head of data quality control at the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat), is clear: “We can talk about heat records, but never cold ones are broken.” This meteorological asymmetry confirms that summer is "expanding" with increasingly widespread heat conditions throughout the calendar.The idyll of the sea breeze as the only remedy for the August heat is giving way to a more diverse vision of holidays in Catalonia. And in fact, according to data from the Catalan Tourism Agency (ACT), August 2025 registered a 4.8% decrease in the number of foreign tourists compared to the previous year. While awaiting the figures for 2026, what is clear is that the coast no longer cools as it used to, a fact that is driving a redistribution of flows towards the Pyrenees and the interior. This is not a break with the traditional model, but rather an evolution where thermal comfort gains weight. The coastal oven and the marinade collapse

Catalonia's great thermostat, the Mediterranean Sea, is losing its regulatory capacity. On July 18, 2025, the water temperature in L'Estartit reached a historic record of 26.8°C, more than 2°C above the climatic average. Aleix Serra warns that this temperature increase causes the sea to lose its ability to mitigate heat near the coast. This is especially noticeable at night: "At the end of summer, the water continues to be very hot, and this is what causes tropical nights for entire months," he explains.Last summer, 36 torrid nights were recorded in which the thermometer did not drop below 25°C, a figure that only finds precedents in the historic years of 2003 and 2022. In places like Cap de Creus, the minimums reached almost 30°C. “Summer is becoming increasingly extreme,” insists Serra, and although it cannot be assured whether 2026 will take another step forward, “the trend is undeniable”. The Pyrenees refrigerator

This physical reality is already translating into a change in behavior that has reached travel agencies. From the Corporate Association of Specialized Travel Agencies (ACAVE), they confirm that the phenomenon of coolcations} (cool vacations) is a trend that is gaining visibility in a context of climate change. “There is a type of traveler who seeks quieter places, fleeing more severe climatic conditions,” explain the employers' association.The fear of repeating the heat of previous summers has boosted interest in destinations such as Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scandinavia, or the Azores. According to ACAVE, after the pandemic there has been a growing demand for nature tourism related to sports such as cycling and trekking, seeking activities different from the traditional sun and beach.

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Sercortel has surpassed the barrier of one hundred managed hotels this 2026. It works to invoice 360 million in 2029, compared to the 200 with which it will close 2026. José Rodríguez (Barcelona, 1967) is the CEO of this company, which is in the hands of the Landon society, belonging to the Gallardo family, main shareholders of Almirall. It has no debt thanks to the management contract model, enjoys high occupancy rates all year round, and in 2027 will study expanding abroad. Rodríguez explains to ARA the keys to growth since before the pandemic – since then it will have multiplied turnover by 4.4 – and analyzes the challenges and strengths of the current tourism industry.

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Cuba has been immersed in a severe economic and energy crisis for months, and tourism is one of the casualties. The fuel shortage that the island has been suffering for some time due to the United States' oil strangulation has led some airlines to cancel flights to Havana. This is the case of Iberia, which since this Monday no longer operates the route between Madrid and the Cuban capital. Now, the threat of sanctions also from the United States is added regarding foreign hotels that manage assets owned by Gaesa, the Cuban army's conglomerate. Pressure that has already led different hotel firms to withdraw from the island. This Wednesday, Meliá, the hotel chain of Mallorcan origin, announced that it was ceasing operations at 15 hotels on the island, while on Tuesday the Spanish firm Iberostar did the same with 12 of its 18 establishments. The decision of both means the partial withdrawal of the most important Spanish hotel chains in Cuba.

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The heat arrives, and with it the peak months for tourism in Catalonia. This year the season kicks off after a record first quarter. Catalonia received the highest number of visitors in this period in the last decade between January and April, and it's also the year they have spent the most.

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The Fènix Report, in which I participated, has merited the attention of the media and many analysts, but no interest, for the moment, from those responsible for the country's economic policy. It must be said that, among those who have shown interest, the agreement on the diagnosis is very great. The prognosis, however, no one fully claims as their own. I think this is due, in part, to some misinterpretations, more or less intentional.

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The other day, one weekday afternoon, I passed through one of the most touristy areas of the center of Barcelona. I was heading to Casa Amatller to participate in a book club I had been invited to. The activity is organized by Cases Singulars, the entity that manages the schedule in various heritage sites in Barcelona, such as private houses, libraries, and palaces.

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A record summer is expected both in Barcelona and throughout Catalonia. Given this scenario, it is difficult to understand why the tourist tax has not increased even more. Since April 1st, up to 12 euros per person per night are paid in the city of Barcelona, depending on the type of establishment. What often goes unnoticed is that part of this collection has a specific destination: 25% is transferred to the Generalitat for housing policies and the remaining 75% is allocated to the Fund for the Promotion of Tourism.The reality is that the tourist tax is inelastic. It is difficult to imagine a visitor stopping coming to Barcelona due to a moderate increase in the price per night, especially in the case of high-end establishments. Meanwhile, the city faces a growing deficit in services, infrastructure, and public space maintenance. Giving up this revenue stream is, in essence, equivalent to wasting necessary resources.It is true that it can also be argued that the tax affects local tourism and residents also suffer the consequences. But precisely for this reason the system should be reformulated: establish bonuses or reductions for residents in Catalonia and orient the tax towards a fairer redistribution of the costs generated by tourist activity. However, the debate cannot end with the amount collected. The central question is what is done with this money. If citizens perceive that the tourist tax serves to strengthen public transport, expand the affordable housing stock, improve cleaning, or reduce pressure on the most saturated neighborhoods, social consensus will be much broader. The problem arises when the collection is diluted without a visible return or a clear strategy. Who knew what their funds were intended for?

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