Holy Week returns part of foreign tourism to Barcelona

Tourists in the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri in Barcelona, ​​yesterday. Massimiliano Minocri (EL PAÍS)

In Barcelona there are thermometers that do not fail to measure the temperature of the tourism sector.

The noise of visitors dragging suitcases.

The languages ​​you hear on the street.

People per square meter looking up at the Sagrada Familia.

Traffic jams on bike lanes occupied by groups of visitors.

If in Plaça Reial the waiters invite the passer-by to sit at a table;

or if there is no table to sit at.

And the top: when the L4 subway cars coming up from the beach smell like sunscreen.

All of the above has occurred during the four holidays in the city, those of Holy Week.

The main centers of tourist attention have registered full occupations and the jump in foreign visitors has been remarkable.

The airport has operated 82% of the flights on these dates in 2019, according to Aena.

And it was explained this Monday by employees of La Pedrera, an FC Barcelona store or the bus that goes to the airport.

"A lot of people, full from 10 to 16 hours every day," said Carla Peris, from La Pedrera's visitor service: "French, Italian, German students, and even Asians."

Like Gerry Noi, from Hong Kong: two weeks with his girlfriend in Spain and zero fear of covid.

“We are more fascinated than scared,” she assured.

Or two Japanese couples listening to a guide in Plaça de Sant Felip Neri.

Of advanced age, they explained that they have sailed on a cruise from New York.

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In the Barça store on Passeig de Gràcia, a frenzy: "Full throttle: French, Italians, Argentines, Americans and many Colombians", listed Nacho Canut.

Colombians like Carlos Duran, Ruth Estella and her friends, middle-aged textile entrepreneurs from Medellín.

After traveling a section of the Camino de Santiago by bicycle, they decided to visit Barcelona for a couple of days: "We arrived in Sants and couldn't find a hotel, we slept on the street", they recounted showing photos sitting on benches at night, but with a smile: "It's so beautiful and cute Barcelona”.

The Barcelona Hotel Guild did not provide data, but a week before the holidays it pointed to 80% occupancy in open hotels (83%), with prices 15% lower than usual.

A little further down, in a gathering of Aerobus drivers and customer assistants, those present underlined “the activity of terminal 2, that of

flights , the first to wake up after the pandemic.”

“The T2 goes to all chestnut.

T1 is going at a different pace”, they added.

Some businessmen in the sector confirm that during Holy Week there has been an increase in activity, but maintain that pre-pandemic business levels have not been reached, that visitors spend less and that they would prefer greater stability and flow of tourists than working four days on a piecework basis.

”We need stability”

Conchi García, in charge of the Tobogán restaurant.

The Galician from Plaça Reial celebrated the activity on holidays and the presence of foreigners (“French, Italian, English”) but warned that “the average ticket is closer to 15 than 30 euros”.

“What is now beginning to be normal, because until now there was no normality.

What we need is stability, a crowded square is useless to us and then it is empty, ”she pointed out.

A point of view aligned with that of the Restoration Guild, whose general director, Roger Pallarols, speaks of "certain optimism", but that activity prior to the pandemic has not recovered, although "a two-year hole is closed" .

“Barcelona needed the international market”, he affirms without specifying figures.

Pallarols warns of the "inflationary crisis" and assures that the sector has tried to contain prices and not transfer the increase in costs to customers: "If it drags on, it cannot be avoided."

At ground zero of the devastating impact of the coronavirus in the center, the streets of Ferran and Jaume I, where many hotels and shops closed, activity slowly returns.

Carles Nin, at the reception of the Gran Hotel Barcino, celebrated the full occupancy of the holidays and the good prospects for the future "as when the occupancy was always 100%".

The employer that did provide data is that of tourist apartments, Apartur.

"The forecasts pointed to 92% occupancy and we have reached 95%, as in the best moments of 2019", applauds its president, Enrique Alcántara.

And he adds: "Prices have also recovered."

“We are very happy, with good prospects in May and June, although we have learned that everything can change.

Just in April, the ICOs [government loans due to the pandemic] must be returned”, he trusts and celebrates the presence of Europeans and, above all, Americans “despite there being a war in Europe”.

Visitors put pressure on neighborhoods like the Gòtic again

With the return of tourism, the consequences of the overcrowding of spaces such as the Gòtic neighborhood (Ciutat Vella) have returned.

The alert comes from the neighborhood association, which after the closure due to the pandemic in 2020, recovered streets and squares in the neighborhood and starred in images unusual in decades, with children playing soccer in front of the cathedral or cycling down Bisbe street.

Martí Cusó, from the association, regrets "that the administration has not changed the discourse on tourism and the weight it has in the city" and insists "on the difficulties that tourist pressure poses for the daily life of residents, and the consequences on local commerce or the price of housing, while not improving the working conditions of workers in the sector”.

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