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.

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.

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?

The Ibizan municipality of Sant Antoni de Portmany has launched a campaign it calls "for responsible tourism awareness", which, among other measures and initiatives, provides for sanctions for uncivil attitudes that are often associated with mass tourism (such as that suffered by the island of Ibiza and the municipality of Sant Antoni de Portmany). Urinating in the street will incur a fine of 500 euros, and walking down the street without a shirt or t-shirt, with a bare chest, 750. Consuming alcohol in public places will be fined 1,500 euros, and if the substance consumed is nitrous oxide (what is known as "laughing gas", popular especially among British and German tourists who visit Ibiza and Mallorca), the fine will amount to 3,000 euros. The town hall has also published ten thousand postcards to be distributed among hotels, restaurants and other hospitality establishments, in order to inform tourists of the rules and the fines they face if they fail to comply. The postcards are in Spanish and English, which are languages that, in principle, many of the tourists who go to the area in the summers know, but they could also have included German and Italian. And Catalan, which is the native language of Ibiza and for which tourists do not need to be protected (it will do them no harm to encounter it). But perhaps for the town hall of Sant Antoni de Portmany, governed by the PP, that would be asking too much.However, the initiative to give civic rules to tourism is interesting and we would say necessary. On this side, the fact of being a PP town hall means that they will be protected from the accusation of tourismophobia that would undoubtedly fall on a left-wing council that launched a similar campaign. On the other hand, the rulers of Sant Antoni de Portmany are not limited to tourists. Last March, a lucky resident received a fine of 10,001 euros for abandoning a dog (a dog, for those who need translation from Catalan to Catalan) in the street. The abandonment of animals is fined in Sant Antoni de Portmany with this amount.They are amounts that someone might find excessive, but which are in reality proportional and sensible. Incivility is one of the most serious problems that many towns and cities in the Balearic Islands, as well as in Catalonia and the Valencian Country, currently have to face. It is a phenomenon that is not caused solely by mass tourism, but that is directly linked to it. It also has to do with an educational problem (the Balearic Islands have alarmingly high rates of school dropout), which is also one of the consequences of the hegemony of tourism as an economic activity. That they are punitive measures is no obstacle to implementing others of a more pedagogical nature. But it is good for the tourist to know that all-inclusive does not mean a carte blanche to dirty and damage the environment, and for residents to receive the message that the common good exists and that destroying it is not free.Regulating binge drinking tourism is not a bad idea. Now it would be necessary to also regulate the tourism of yachts and luxury mansions, which is as harmful, if not more so, than the other.

Let's think for a moment about the work behind the Phoenix Report, published this May. Six economists of undisputed prestige —Xavier Cuadras Morató, Jordi Galí, Modest Guinjoan, Guillem López Casasnovas, Miquel Puig and Jaume Ventura, coordinated by Xavier Roig— have had to agree on more than one hundred and twenty pages of analysis, accept external arguments, renounce their own personal positions, and put their academic and social capital at stake to achieve a greater good: to awaken a country. To hold it up to the mirror. To proclaim, with data and rigor, that the emperor has no clothes. And the king is naked because while Catalonia's GDP has grown above the European average in the last 25 years, GDP per capita has fallen 12 percentage points compared to our European partners. A quarter of a century ago we were six points above the European average. Today we are six points below. We have created wealth, yes. But we have distributed it among more and more people and in a worse and worse way. This is where we need to stop and think. Because there is a deep confusion, whether interested or naive, about what distributing wealth means. The State tends to understand distribution as providing more services to those who cannot afford them. And it is true that in an advanced society collective solidarity reaches where the individual cannot reach alone. But there is no better distribution of wealth than increasing people's wages. That fewer and fewer people have to depend on public resources to have a full life. That every worker can feel responsible for their own future and have control over their life. Jarvis Cocker, from Pulp, sang it with bitter irony in "Common People": "how does it feel to live your life without no meaning or control?" It is a song about the romanticization of poverty. Today it could be the soundtrack to a growing part of Catalan society. 

A harsh report on the state of the Catalan economy, prepared by several economists, criticizes the country's productive structure because several business sectors end up being, de facto, "highly subsidized" by the rest of the economic fabric. This current model has represented an "impoverishment" of Catalan society and a continuous loss of productivity of the business fabric compared to Europe in the last 25 years. "The country is bleeding out," summarized the report's coordinator, executive and engineer Xavier Roig.

More pressure on cruise ships that do not have Barcelona as their home port and only make a stopover. The mayor of the Catalan capital, Jaume Collboni, announced this Wednesday that his objective is that in the coming years this type of offering does not exist in the city and that only vessels that have the Catalan capital as their home port dock in the Port of Barcelona. In an interview with Betevé, he advocated for "reducing cruise stopovers to zero" in the coming years. "We have to start making brave and very clear decisions in this regard," he said.

Atop the Vesuvius, I addressed the man who ran the drink kiosk and, overcome with wonder, I exclaimed, in my best broken Italian and with those knowing eyes that appear on me without intending to: “Dov'è Pompei?” The man pointed into the distance and said: “È lì”. I was happy. I had asked an interesting question, like a traveler, not a spoiled tourist; I had done it by trying to use his language and I had succeeded. When I was leaving (everything was already clear), I heard other tourists – my gut feeling told me they were Catalan – ask him: “Dov'è Pompei?”, and he, automatically, pointed to a spot in the distance (in another direction) and repeated: “È lì”.

With the news of an agreement in extremis between workers and the garbage collection company to call off the strike that threatened to adorn the city with filth, Girona is finalizing preparations for the event that attracts more people to the city each year: Temps de Flors. A show born in the fifties and consolidated from 1979 onwards, which reaches a record number of visitors each edition. In 2025, it reached 400,000 in just nine days, in a city of just over 100,000 inhabitants.

Fewer visitors, but more spending. Catalonia maintains the trend that began in January regarding the arrival of international tourists. According to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, the flow of foreign visitors fell to 1.29 million, 5.39% less than in the same period last year. The drop occurs despite the favorable situation of the Easter period, which last year was concentrated entirely in April but this year began on March 29. Nevertheless, the tourism sector's business has soared by 13.3%, to 1,637 million euros, nearly 200 million euros more than a year ago.

Summer is approaching and with it, holidays. But this year, the combination of persistent inflation and sky-high oil prices will make travelling more expensive than ever. The impact on flights is direct and unavoidable. Fuel is the main operating cost for any airline, and with oil prices practically doubling since February, their margins have plummeted. The logical consequence is that tickets will go up in price.

The German airline Lufthansa has reported that the closure of its short-haul airline Lufthansa CityLine will reduce the group's capacity by 1% and means the elimination of 20,000 flights, equivalent to about 40,000 metric tons of aviation fuel, a product whose price has doubled since the outbreak of the war in the Persian Gulf.

It seems to me that what happens in Venice will happen to the rest of the world. Look, for example, at the spritz, that orange drink –Aperol (for non-Venetians)– or red –Campari or Select (for Venetians)–. From a local custom, it has become a global phenomenon that, at times, becomes disgusting, especially if you see some tourists who, while having dinner, drink one without thinking that the spritz is only taken as an aperitif.

Easter gives the starting signal for the high tourist season on the Costa Daurada. It is increasingly common to see groups of tourists walking through the streets following marked routes, with a clear commitment to extending activity beyond the summer. This dynamism represents an undeniable economic engine, but it also accentuates overcrowding in coastal areas, pressure on services, and a progressive homogenization that threatens local identity. Without a real balance between economy and sustainability, tourist success may end up diluting what makes it attractive.

What do localities like Tossa de Mar, Cardona, Bielsa, or Aýna have in common? Well, among other things, their undeniable tourist appeal, but also the fact that they have been the setting for landmark films such as Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Chimes at Midnight, Palmeras en la nieve, or Amanece, que no es poco. These are four examples of locations that fit perfectly into what is known as screen tourism, a type of cultural tourism that drives visits to destinations, landscapes, or cities that have appeared in or are related to films, television series, or audiovisual productions of all kinds, such as documentaries, video games, or commercials, as well as events linked to the audiovisual world, such as festivals or themed gatherings. It is an upward trend that has been experiencing significant growth since the advent of streaming platforms and leads viewers to visit the settings where their favorite stories were filmed.

A group of cypresses, the tree that symbolizes welcome and hospitality, surround the kiosk that functions as a bar in the Parc dels Jardins de les Pedreres in Girona. Josep Maria Esteban, who has worked there for ten years in a totally altruistic manner, mentions this symbolism of the cypresses because he believes that welcome is one of the essential characteristics of this urban park, which in past years the residents of the Pedreres-Fora Muralla neighborhood avoided due to its state of abandonment and which today they have made their own as a meeting place, for birthday celebrations, for snacks, for an outdoor classroom to practice Zumba or yoga, to walk pets there, and to celebrate spoken-word performances, among many other activities.  

The tourism employers' association Exceltur forecasts that the Middle East conflict will cause a "slight" boost to the sector. According to the organization, in the event of a short war scenario, the refuge effect would have an economic impact of 4,239 million euros in Spain, which represents two points of tourist GDP. Therefore, Exceltur calculates that a significant number of tourists may arrive in Spanish territory thanks to the fact that a relevant tourist area like the Middle East is in the midst of the conflict.

The Spanish government anticipates "resilience" in tourist activity in the face of the conflict in the Middle East. And it not only clings to the estimates for this Easter week, which are "fantastic" in the words of the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, but also to an "ability to adapt and resist" of a sector that in recent years has overcome crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. "The situation is completely different [to that of the coronavirus]. It cannot be compared," Hereu said at a press conference this Tuesday, after the cabinet meeting. The minister, who appeared precisely to explain the current pulse of tourism and the forecasts for this Easter week, acknowledged that there is concern about the impact of the conflict, but linked it to "secondary effects" that will depend on how long the war drags on. "We are analyzing with the sector [the current situation] and what might happen if the conflict lasts not weeks, but months," he said. For example, if this scenario leads to an even more severe price crisis.

When I was Superman correspondent covering all of Lleida from top to bottom, if I climbed the stairs towards heaven I would stop for breakfast at Cal Farré de Baró. Over time I was becoming integrated as just another being in the fauna of those Pallars feasting tables. There I related to one of the most mythical orcs of that land. J.C. showed me the future and told me what would happen. Everything was backwards: the return of the meatball to minced meat. One thing he got right before the internet: “Everyone will live in human farms.” Amen.

The Catalan tourism sector expects Easter with high occupancy throughout the territory, with figures in many cases approaching or exceeding 90%. Good snow conditions in the Pyrenees and high demand on the coast after a rainy winter are boosting a campaign that is expected to be positive, especially from Maundy Thursday onwards. However, the international context marked by the war in the Middle East is beginning to have uneven effects. Barcelona is experiencing a slight drop in long-haul visitors, and rural houses anticipate last-minute bookings due to rising fuel costs.