Barcelona will reduce half a million tourists from Park Güell in two years.

BarcelonaBarcelona will take another step toward decongesting Park Güell and its surrounding areas. The municipal government has accepted a request from ERC (Republican Left) and will reduce the maximum capacity of the park, one of the city's main tourist attractions, to 500,000 people per year over the next two years. This will reduce the current 4.4 million visitors to around 3.9 million. In other words, Park Güell will welcome 1,365 fewer tourists per day. A drop of 11% compared to current attendance.

In statements to reporters, the leader of ERC (Republican Left) in the City Council, Elisenda Alamany, announced that her group will take this proposal to the Economy Committee on Wednesday and that they have the support of Jaume Collboni's government. Municipal sources later confirmed this. Alamany explained that his group's goal is for the park "to belong to the people of Barcelona again," and he announced that they will work to continue reducing its capacity in the future. "We don't have enough," he stated.

The measure deepens the path already paved by Barcelona after the 2020 lockdown. At that time, the executive headed by Ada Colau opted for restrict by half access to the park. Before the pandemic, it was estimated that the number of visitors to Parc Güell each year was around 9 million, and since then it has stabilized at around 4.5 million.

That action, however, did not end the problems of coexistence between residents and tourists in the surroundings of Parc Güell. In recent years, the neighborhoods of La Salut and Turó de la Rovira have mobilized on several occasions against overcrowding in the area. Last June, for example, the Carmel road was closed every weekend for warning about the congestion of this road, caused by one of the park's entrances. Among the measures they demanded was a 50% reduction in the space's capacity.

More expensive tickets and online only

Without reducing capacity, Jaume Collboni's government had implemented other measures this term to minimize the negative externalities that tourist pressure has on the residents of Parc Güell. A few months ago, for example, the board of directors of the municipal company BSM—which is in charge of managing the park—approved an increase in admission to the site, from 10 to 18 euros. This was a request from the Comuneros (Commons) to approve the 2025 tax ordinances.

To avoid crowds at the park entrances, it was also agreed more than a year ago to stop selling tickets in person at the entrance. Visitors wishing to enter can only purchase them. onlineThis, along with several information campaigns, was supposed to help discourage tourists from going up to the park if they didn't have a ticket and at the same time it had to relieve congestion on the buses that go up to the area, and which for a good part of the year go full as an egg of tourists.

Lately, in fact, the frequency of these buses has also been increased, and neighborhood bus 116 was even removed from Google Maps to prevent tourists from taking it over. Several changes have also been made to the mobility system to avoid the congestion that taxis and buses carrying tourists to the park caused at the entrances. Thus, the restricted area for residents only in the Salut neighborhood has been expanded, and the taxi rank has been moved to the bus parking Other demands from residents are still pending, such as the possibility of extending priority access time slots for residents, making park access exclusive to Barcelona residents on one Sunday a month, and making it easier for organizations in adjacent neighborhoods to hold events.