The data affects the province without counting the localities of the Barcelonès Regional Council
The surroundings of Barcelona, that is, the province minus the Barcelonès region, received 2.4 million tourists in 2021, which represents about 70% more than the previous year and 49.5% less than in 2019the last year before covid, according to the ‘Tourism indicators report of the environment of Barcelona 2021′, prepared by the Laboratori de Turisme (LABturisme) of the Diputación de Barcelona, reports Europa Press.
The number of overnight stays reached 6.6 million, 82.8% more than in 2020 and 54.2% less than in 2019. They are, therefore, indicators similar to those of other areas: they improve ostensibly but there was room for this, given the situation experienced in 2020.
foreign and domestic
Regarding the origin of travelers, foreign tourism grew by 86% in 2021 compared to 2020, still remaining -73% below the year before the pandemic, and domestic tourism grew by 61% compared to 2020, but did not reach to the values of 2019 (-24%).
The average stay of the traveler in the territory stood at 2.8 nights, 9% more than in 2020, and the study also points to the increase in the number of open establishments on average, which was 891, 35% more than in 2020.
Hotels and rural houses
By typology, hotels are the ones that grew the most in the number of travelers (+72%) compared to 2020, despite the fact that they are also the ones that are farthest from the results of before the pandemic, and after the hotels, those that obtained the most growth were rural tourism accommodation (+57%) and campsites (+56%).
As for the distribution by counties, all of them managed to exceed the 2020 figures in terms of travelers and overnight stays, ranging from +33% in Anoia to +135% in Maresme. In 2021, the average number of employees in the tourism sector also grew by 4.5% compared to the previous year, as well as the number of companies, which stood at 3.2% more than in 2020.
On the contrary, travel agencies and tour operators were the only subsector that lost employees and companies during 2021 (-6.9% and -8.0% respectively). In this same sense, tourist unemployment at the end of 2021 stood at 13,609 people, -35% compared to December 2020, which means that 8,000 people found work in the sector during 2021.
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Barcelona data
Barcelona city closed 2021 having hosted 6.5 million tourists, 47.7% more than in 2020when the sum was 4.4 million visitors, and 64.9% less than in 2019when the figure reached 18.5 million.