The analysis phase of the Plan got underway with the drawing up of a specific road map, based on the set of critical points and key aspects relating to tourism which became clear within the framework of the Focus Groups and the questionnaire. From these questions the Office proceeded to carry out an in-depth analysis of tourism in Barcelona, while setting in train a process of shared participation and reflection. We explored and collated objective data and information during this process, and listened to the opinions of a broad sector of the community, including groups. The actions carried out were diverse and participative: the Working Commissions, the Technical Working Groups, opinion studies and the different projects carried out in association with bodies and organisations, among others.

The strategic diagnosis phase of the Plan concluded in autumn 2009, with the presentation of the document Strategic diagnosis of tourism in Barcelona.

Strategic diagnosis document

The Strategic diagnosis document was presented in mid-October and set out a rigorous analysis which was very aware of the diverse realities that comprise tourism in Barcelona.

The Strategic diagnosis document is divided into different chapters: the first, the introductory chapter, sets out the origins, objectives, intentions and working methodology that have steered the Plan, highlighting its linking threads: management bodies, inspirational principles, objectives and horizon, working criteria, actions and methods, and  the main areas of work...

The second chapter presents a strategic analysis of tourism in Barcelona: it features a brief explanatory framework about the relationships between tourism and the city and the main trends and challenges facing tourism on a global scale. It also places these aspects in context to make it easier to understand the tourism system, from a global and local viewpoint and taking into account the economic, territorial, socio-demographic and environmental variables. This chapter also performs an analysis of Barcelona's current tourist situation, highlighting the milestones that have marked its recent development; it also looks at current and previous benchmark strategic plans, and makes an analysis of the main aspects that shape tourism supply and demand in the city, paying particular attention to the case of the old town, Ciutat Vella, and, finally, reflecting on the external image of the city, its competitiveness with other tourist destinations, and opinions and internal discourses.

The third chapter includes the strategic diagnosis, the core of the document featuring a list of 150 issues which, by way of conclusion, brings together the aspects the Office deems to be the most important facets of the complex reality of tourism and the city in Barcelona: the key aspects to be taken into account. The chapter concludes with a summary of these.

The 150 points are set out under the following headings:

> Supply and demand: the position of the city as a tourist destination around the world

> Policies, management and promotion: governance of the activity

> Economic and sectoral aspects: the economic and business dimension

> Social and cultural aspects: the citizen's gaze

> Ciutat Vella: the challenge

Finally, the document includes an appendix which, like a participative report, lists the participants in the different areas of debate and participation of the Plan, the main activities, the documents consulted...

The strategic diagnosis was presented to the Board of Directors of the Plan in October 2009 and the Municipal Commission for Economic Promotion, Employment and Knowledge, as well as the City Advisory Board Tourism Commission.

Strategic synthesis

The strategic synthesis that concludes the Strategic diagnosis document presents a compendium of the most relevant data and information collated from the analysis and diagnosis of tourism in Barcelona, from an economic, social, cultural and territorial viewpoint.

For a number of years now, the growth in tourist activity in Barcelona has made the city a world-class tourist destination. Today, Barcelona is a successful tourist city, and enjoys worldwide recognition and acclaim and is a desirable destination for many types of people. Barcelona's appeal certainly has to do with a multiplicity of elements that make it interesting to a wide range of demand segments, beyond the classic tourist who visits for recreational purposes or on holiday. Visitors with a very varied profile, with diverse origins and motivations come to Barcelona. Training, business, healthcare, sport and research are some of the reasons that attract visitors to the city.

Barcelona as an urban tourism destination owes its success to its ability to combine all its potentialities and strengths as a city with other activities. Indeed, urban tourism exploits the multi-activity of the city, urban multiculturalism and the multi-motivations of the community and visitors.

The majority of international analyses and studies always place Barcelona near the top of their rankings, highlighting its values and qualities in areas as diverse as the quality of life and lifestyle, the cultural and recreational offering, the architectural and monumental legacy, the hotel infrastructure, retail offering, restaurants and bars and its wide range of facilities and amenities for tourism associated with trade fairs, congresses and conventions. Visitor satisfaction is usually very positive with regard to most aspects of the city, and this factor gives impetus and stimulus to the success of the destination. In addition to being valued as a city that must be visited, Barcelona is appreciated because of its quality of life and lifestyle in general, and the image associated with the city incorporates values such as creativity, cosmopolitanism and innovation, which also make it a desirable place to live and work.

Barcelona has traditional and established iconic landmarks which are widely recognised around the world, such as La Rambla, the Park Güell, works by Gaudí and the city's old quarter. It also offers a great many possibilities and potential resources which can further increase the city's appeal, while favouring the dispersal of tourist attractions and, in this way, taking tourism to more of the city's neighbourhoods and districts.

Barcelona's hotel infrastructure has expanded markedly over the past two decades. In the last five years alone, this sector has experienced growth levels of 40%, taking the number of beds from 39,000 to 56,000. The concentration of hotels in the Ciutat Vella and Eixample districts, although high, has decreased while a slow but gradual dispersal of this activity to other areas of the city has taken place.

Barcelona is a competitive tourist city, and is often compared to long-established tourist destinations such as Paris, Rome, Madrid and London, all of them state capitals. In fact, Barcelona is one of the European cities that have experienced the greatest growth in relative terms with regard to tourism.

The economic and sociocultural environment of recent years has helped raise the city's profile around the world. In addition to this, the development of transport infrastructures, such as the airport, port and high-speed train (AVE) have benefited the major growth in tourism demand for Barcelona. The low-cost transport boom throughout Europe, the increase in the number of trips from around the world and the popularisation of weekend breaks in urban centres have favoured the city's success as a tourist destination.

Barcelona has done things properly as far as tourism promotion is concerned: for more than 15 years, Turisme de Barcelona "a public-private consortium comprising the Chamber of Commerce and the City Council" has made great efforts to promote and disseminate the image of the city, attract specific demand segments and make Barcelona's offering cost-effective. All this has been achieved following an ongoing strategy of creating, managing and marketing products which have made the consortium practically self-sufficient in financial terms, meaning that it generates more than 90% of its budget which, in 2008, was in excess of 30 million euros. The Turisme de Barcelona model is widely admired, and an example of promotion that many other destinations seek to imitate. However, in order to face the future with guarantees, it may be necessary to rethink its definition, role and sources of funding based on the experience of the success accumulated over these years.

Beyond the promotional strategy implemented, it is important to remember that the legacy of the image of the 92 Olympics, the urban renewal and the general appeal of the city have contributed to the growth in tourism in Barcelona. 

It is estimated that more than 10 million visitors stayed overnight in Barcelona in 2008. The city is a leader in segments including congresses, cruises and city breaks. These visitor volumes represent around 25 million overnights in all kinds of accommodations, including those categorised as "relatives" and friends "houses". These do not take into account the large numbers of day visitors or "trippers" who travel to the city throughout the year.

The magnitude of these figures is also associated with another important piece of data: in 2007, tourism activity in Barcelona had an economic impact close to 20 million euros a day "in sectors as diverse as accommodation, the retail trade, restaurants and bars, transport and cultural and recreational facilities, among others" and created more direct employment than the chemical, financial, property and car industries in Catalonia, thus proving its importance. It is also important to highlight the multiplying effect of tourism on the city's economy, where more than 25% of its impact is distributed by sectors that are not directly considered to be associated with tourism, as well as its important effects on the rest of the country.

Beyond understanding tourism as a source of income for the city, the community also values this activity insofar as it is an element for social and cultural progress and a stimulus for urban development, which fosters the dynamism of a plural, cosmopolitan city which is open to the world.

In recent years, the large and medium-sized metropolises in western society have shown a commitment to the tourist industry as one of the engines for economic development and an element for revitalising the territory. Increasingly, tourism is taking on a predominant role in contemporary cities, and it is within the framework of this dynamic that Barcelona has fully established itself as a tourist destination.

Barcelona's new transport infrastructures have brought about a true change in scale. The continuous improvements being made to the airport and the port, and the arrival of the high-speed train (AVE) are changing the true dimensions of the city, connecting it with the world's main incoming markets and expanding its potential market. An example is the current leadership of the port in the cruise market. Barcelona is the leading cruise port in Europe and the Mediterranean and ranks fifth in the world.

The territorial and symbolic boundaries of destination Barcelona have extended beyond the purely administrative demarcations of the city. The area covered by destination Barcelona and the capital's links to other tourist offerings in Catalonia and the rest of Spain are now a potentiality to be reckoned with.

As far as demand is concerned, the plurality of profiles is very high, which favours the deseasonalisation of the activity throughout the week and throughout the year. Barcelona attracts visitors from a wide variety of geographical origins: three quarters of the tourism demand comes from abroad, with the French, Italian, British, German and North American markets being the most prominent. There is also a wide range of motivations for travel: 55% of visitors come to Barcelona for recreational purposes, 33% for professional reasons and 12% for personal reasons.

The growth and diversification in tourism supply and demand experienced in recent years have been accompanied by a certain unease among the community, who, in a relatively short space of time, have seen how the social, retail and urbanistic network of the city has changed significantly. In this context, opinions have emerged that are critical towards tourism, reflecting a disapproval, not so much of tourism in itself, but the lack of management of its impact or simply a feeling of abandonment. 

Recently, the large numbers of visitors to Barcelona have highlighted the fact that it is necessary to manage the impact of tourism within the framework of a new tourism policy for the city. The problems stemming from massification, the processes of transformation in retail activities or the problems of coexistence and cohabitation in tourist areas "mainly at the Sagrada Família, the Park Güell and many places in Ciutat Vella" are some of the complications than make it difficult for tourism to fit in with the city. Certain prejudices and stereotypes have emerged about tourists as a result of this unease and the tensions that are still to be resolved, and tourism has also been identified as responsible for some of the city's problems.

The conflicts associated with the massification and standardisation of the offering could pre-empt certain levels of attrition with regard to tourism and become a contributing factor to the deterioration of Barcelona, having adverse effects on the quality of life of the local community and spoiling the visitor's experience. Furthermore, it is important to remember that the image of Barcelona, like the image of every tourist destination, is prone to being undermined if the visitors themselves start to have bad experiences.

In addition to highlighting the need to manage and order tourism activity, the lack of conciliation between the community and tourism can also be explained, to a certain extent, by an ignorance of its positive effects.

We have established the existence of polarised opinions between praise and criticism, discourses that have fluctuated between self-satisfaction and rejection. The local press has played an important role on both sides of the pendulum, and it can be said that published opinion has struck a chord among certain groups in Barcelona society.

It is also important to mention the contrast between the image perceived on an external level, where Barcelona enjoys an excellent reputation, and the citizen's gaze, which, far from rejecting tourism and its benefits, has a more critical opinion of its impact.

As this critical view of tourism has been "kindled", an economic and financial crisis of worldwide scope has made us take stock of the value of the tourist industry, which is clearly cross-cutting, multisectorial and firmly established in Barcelona. However, it is nevertheless true that this economic crisis can change many things, both in terms of visitors? habits and the city's competitive conditions, as well as the tourist offering as a whole. This factor represents a new challenge that Barcelona cannot fail to meet.

Tourism must be everyone's concern, basically because the population as a whole receives the impact "both positive and negative" generated by this activity, either directly or indirectly. Taking this premise into account, we must face the future with the clear idea that tourism is a shared, not-sectorial, project. In this regard, we must move forward towards a new idea of what urban tourism means in the 21st century, and this must be done with the greatest possible involvement of the community and institutions.

After years of euphoria and strong growth, in the future we must take a new approach to key aspects such as tourism management, the importance of education and a search for complicities, the opportunities for the territorial deconcentration of the offering and adaptation to the demand, and the improvement of the activity in an increasingly changing and competitive environment, among other questions.

However, above all, Barcelona has the ability and will to face the future with guarantees.