The Barcelona City Council has agreed, with the consensus of the main entities and unions in the retail sector, on the new opening hours and public holidays when there will be commercial activity in the city, until the end of 2025. The pact, which affects establishments located in areas of the city that receive more tourist influx, expands the urban radius where it will be applied and increases the number of Sundays and public holidays for commercial opening throughout the year, maintaining the current customer service hours.
Specifically, shops in Ciutat Vella and several neighborhoods in other districts will be able to open on Sundays and public holidays from 12:00 to 20:00, between May 15 and September 15. This is a substantial improvement, long demanded by the main entities in the sector. Currently, the delimitation and commercial opening days of the Tourist Grand Influx Zone (ZGAT) in the city of Barcelona stipulated that they could open ten public holidays a year, in addition to all public holidays between May 5 and May 24, both inclusive, and between October 1 and October 14, also both inclusive. Always from 12:00 to 20:00.
Furthermore, the new agreement proposes to expand the tourist zone for commercial opening compared to the current regulation, by including zones 1 and 2 of the Special Urban Plan for Tourist Accommodation (PEUAT). Thus, the districts affected by this regulation increase from five to eight. From now on, there will be shops open on permitted holidays in the areas of Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Sants-Montjuïc, les Corts, Sarrià Sant Gervasi, Gràcia, Horta-Guinardó and Sant Martí.
The agreement will be signed next Monday, February 21, and will be put to a vote in the municipal plenary session on February 25. Subsequently, it will be submitted to the Direcció de Comerç of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which is the competent body to regulate in this matter.
The number of districts that will benefit from this regulation increases from five to eightApart from the Barcelona City Council, the proposal has had with the support of Barcelona Comerç, Barcelona Oberta, Pimec, Foment del Treball, the National Association of Large Distribution Companies (ANGED) and UGT. As for Comisiones Obreras, which has also participated in the negotiations since their beginning, it is awaiting the definitive positioning of its bodies regarding joining the agreement.
The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Labor, Competitiveness and Finance, Jaume Collboni, has assured that with the extended opening hours in Barcelona's tourist shopping area "it will be possible to capture more consumption from visitors and contribute to improving Barcelona's positioning as a shopping destination, which will translate into economic reactivation and greater employment". "We are pleased that in this negotiation and agreement there is also representation of workers, a requirement that has always been defended by the municipal government, as this is the best guarantee that the new opening days will generate new employment and will not fall on already hired workers," he assured.