Catalonia continues to break all tourism records. For the first time, it has surpassed the 16 million international visitor barrier in the first nine months of the year—a particularly significant period because it includes the summer, traditionally the strongest season—and the 20 billion euro mark in total spending.

The way of approaching tourism is also starting to shift in Brussels. If until now the incipient European guidelines revolved around the competitiveness and resilience of the sector, the community executive now speaks of "growing pressure" on certain destinations that have difficulties managing the influx, especially in summer, and points to low wages as a widespread problem.

Never before had so many tourists stayed in hotels in Catalonia as in the first nine months of this year, when they exceeded 18.7 million guests, 4.42% more than in the same period last year. However, stays continue to become shorter, in a context where tourism services are becoming more expensive above inflation.

Intense rains and weather alerts have become an uncomfortable reminder of a climate that no longer responds to the patterns we once knew. Tourism, an economic engine for much of the Camp de Tarragona, often depends on a landscape associated with sun and good weather, but it will also have to face the effects of this new reality. Perhaps the challenge is not only to continue attracting visitors, but also to rethink a territorial model capable of adapting to increasingly extreme weather phenomena.

The World Economic Forum puts figures to the feeling that traveling is becoming increasingly expensive. The organization that gathers the elite of the global economy and politics in Davos warns that, since 2024, tourism prices have soared above inflation in 75% of destinations, according to a recent report consulted by ARA. The Travel & tourism development index 2026 concludes that the tourism sector worldwide has lost price competitiveness in the last two years, even though the influx of visitors on a global scale has continued to grow.

It is unusual for Judit Carrera, director of the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), to appear in the economics pages. Tourism governance and access to housing are two such huge and transversal challenges that they also impact the definition of Barcelona as a city and its cultural dynamics. From the CCCB, she has placed these topics at the center of many of her activities, from the Biennial of Thought that is being held these days to the Cities and Tourism cycle, for which there are precisely two new activities this very week. The topic, however, also affects the very functioning of the center. Carrera, on one hand, argues that limits must be placed on tourism and, on the other, is committed to the CCCB reaching more foreign visitors. When the search for a new tourism model has become the Holy Grail, Carrera establishes culture as a vector of change.

Following the Vermilion Coast road that winds along the sea between Portbou and Cerbère, upon arriving at this town, the southernmost in the French state, one is surprised by the silhouette of a huge cement ship anchored to the cliff, on a triangular ledge wedged between the railway line and the seafront.

The state's tourism sector has "maintained its dynamism" during this year's summer. This was celebrated this Wednesday by the sector lobby Exceltur, which highlighted the intense increase in business sales in the third quarter of the year across the entire value chain, at 4.1% in year-on-year terms. Despite the good pace of business, however, the cost environment has been unfavorable: according to the entity, price pressures have caused "the positive performance of revenues not to translate with the same intensity into the results of tourism companies".

Journalist Toni Soler explained on Instagram that he is leaving Barcelona's Gothic Quarter after 25 years. "We feel somewhat driven out of a neighborhood that has increasingly surrendered to tourism monoculture. Where it is difficult to be a Barcelonian and Catalan and feel at home," he says. The journalist argues that "the Gothic Quarter is full of neighbors who love the neighborhood and deserve for the city to respond to their commitment."

With a quick internet search, you can find round-trip plane tickets between Barcelona and Brussels for less than 70 euros. The same journey by train (which requires a transfer) costs more than 200 euros. And if it were done by car, between fuel and tolls, it would cost at least about 400. How is such a big difference possible? The answer lies, in part, in the tax exemptions that kerosene enjoys.

Catalonia has recorded this year the month of August with the most foreign tourists since the pandemic, but spending per visitor fell, according to the surveys of tourist movements at borders and tourist spending published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) this Friday.

The Baix Llobregat is among the preferred destinations for families and now aims to make a place for itself among the senior public as well with Silver Plans, the new program promoted by the Baix Llobregat Tourism Consortium. An initiative designed for a generation that has time, curiosity, and a great desire to continue discovering and enjoying new experiences.

"Cities can end up paying a very high cost if no one worries about a more equitable distribution of resources." This is the statement of one of the most influential voices in territorial planning in Europe, architect and urban planner – and former City Councilor for Urban Planning in Milan – Alessandro Balducci (Rome, 1954), who visited Barcelona in July within the framework of presentations organized by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB). Taking into account the invisible, that which politicians often do not want to see and which we are leaving "in the hands of algorithms," has become his firmest defense. In conversation with ARA, he asserts that institutions must begin to cooperate and "stop working like in the last century."

Among the luxurious high-end bicycle establishments with English names that have proliferated in Girona in recent years, drawn by the cycle tourism boom, the small shop-workshop Bicicletes Fortià stands firm. Throughout its 44-year history, it has managed to earn a loyal clientele that values the professionalism and the friendly, approachable manner of the business owner, Jordi Fortià.

Catalonia is once again recording a new record in tourist arrivals and closes an unprecedented summer. Despite the heat waves and the rise in ticket prices due to the effects derived from the conflict in the Middle East, the country received almost 2.9 million visitors in hotels this month of August, a figure that represents an increase of 5.6% compared to the same period last year and a figure never seen in the entire historical series, which collects information since 1999.

This week is marked on the calendar for many Catalan retirees, beneficiaries of other Social Security pensions, and their partners. Imserso, the Spanish government's social tourism program, is putting up for sale the trips for the 2026/27 season, which will begin in November and run until June.

The former secretary of state and technology specialist Carme Artigas and the Empordà businessman Antoni Escudero are two of the prominent names in the Catalan business world who have been involved in appointments this week. Furthermore, the entry of new executives into the leadership of the tobacco company Philip Morris in Spain and the French automotive group Renault, which has a new vice president, also stands out.

The summer of historic results in tourism that the sector predicted in spring. This July, spending by foreigners in Catalonia has for the first time exceeded the threshold of 3.7 billion euros, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) this Tuesday. The increase in total spending has also been reflected in the average consumption of each visitor, which has also reached a new high, surpassing 1,500 euros per stay for the first time.

Despite being a tourist powerhouse, Catalonia has never been home to many of the sector's major groups, although there are exceptions. With a proportion of 12% of all wealth generated in the country in a year, reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP), tourism is one of the essential sectors for the Catalan economy. Recently subjected to debates about its contribution to productivity and protests due to the rise of businesses such as tourist apartments and for overcrowding and gentrification, it has been, in any case, a dynamic activity, especially in recent years, as shown by data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat). And it is highly focused, on the one hand, on the rental of flats and apartments and, on the other hand, on services for companies in the sector.

Tourism contributes nearly 12% to Catalonia's GDP, the indicator used worldwide to measure an economy's size and growth. However, who generates this wealth? The sector is made up of 133,752 companies and employs 451,990 people, according to the latest data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat), corresponding to the end of 2023.