• The report is the result of the Survey of Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona, which has been conducted altogether in Barcelona city and region, since 2017.
• Restrictions and measures imposed internationally to contain Covid-19 have changed the profile of the tourist in the Destination Barcelona during 2020.
• The typical tourist profile has been a 39.0-year-old person, who lives in Spain, who has university studies, who has traveled alone, for leisure and holiday reasons, who arrives at the Destination by plane or private vehicle, and who has visited the destination municipality 16.2 times on average.
• The most used method to buy both the transport and the accommodation has been directly with the transport company or the establishment.
• The expense during the stay has been € 198.5 per person and € 52.7 per person and day. Food and drink has been the item where more resources have been allocated.

The Observatory of Tourism in Barcelona has published a new study on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona. This study, which has revealed the international pandemic situation, has been undertaken thanks to 4.980 surveys to visitors that stayed overnight in Destination Barcelona in 2020.

The tourist who travels to Destination Barcelona is an average of 39 years old, lives in Spain (69.7%), has university studies (56.2%), works as an employee (61.2%), and travels mostly alone (33.6%), as a couple (27.1%) or with the family (21.2%). Leisure and holiday have been the main reasons to visit the Destination (55.7%), while the plane (38.9%) and the private vehicle (37.4%) have been the most used means of transport to arrive. The tourist has visited the destination municipality 16.2 times on average.

Global mobility restrictions to content the Covid-19 disease have led tourists to rethink both their travel plans and their organization during the stay. These restrictions have caused the tourists who have visited us since July to change the destination of their trip (14.9%), the use of the internal transport (14.3%), the type of the accommodation (12.8%), and the transport of arrival (12.5%). On the other hand, the use of restaurants has been reduced (36.3%), as well as the leisure activities (33.7%), the cultural visits (27.5%), and the duration of the stay (11.9%). 87.9% of tourists who have visited us since July have stated that they have had sufficient information on the Covid-19 sanitary measures of the Destination.

When planning their trip, they mainly have used websites and information provided by friends and relatives. On the other hand, although the purchase of the transport of arrival and the accommodation has been made mainly through the company's website, the accommodation has also been hired through OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), being Booking and Airbnb the most used ones.

Regarding the preference in the type of accommodation, although 52.2% of tourists stay in hotels, which is very similar to previous years, Covid-19 has caused that a large number of tourists have chosen other types of accommodation. Thus, the private homes (staying with friends or relatives) (18.5%) and campsites (9.9%), have experienced a significant increase over previous years. The average length of stay has been 5.1 nights.

The expense during the stay has also experienced significant differences compared to previous years, with falls exceeding -50%, reaching € 198.5 per person and € 52.7 per person per day. Despite this variation, the tourist continues to spend more than half of this expenditure on food and drinks, followed, in this order, by shopping, entertainment, and internal transportation. The North Americans, the British and those from the rest of the world have a higher average expense during their stay than the rest.

Finally, the report also includes an analysis of the places that tourists visit or want to visit outside the municipality where they stay overnight in Destination Barcelona: 20.7% of the surveyed tourists have made an excursion outside the municipality, especially domestic tourists staying in rural tourism dwellings, private homes or campsites.

More infomation: Report on the Profile and Habits of Tourists in Destination Barcelona 2020