Red. Yellow. Blue. Black. Green. An elemental alphabet that needs no translation, that works all over the world. And it is also the language of Joan Miró: the colors he chooses to appeal directly to the unconscious. He does it with simple forms, free signs, to transmit an energy that refers to childhood, to freedom, to an almost primitive idea of life. Fleeing from realistic representation, Miró did not want to describe the world in his works, but to activate it. And it is with this direct and poetic language that he decided to welcome all those who arrived in Barcelona from anywhere on the planet: by land, sea, and air.
Three entry points —land, sea, and air— connected by the same will: to welcome. And to turn the arrival in Barcelona into a cultural experience, through a universal language. "The works were meant to welcome visitors to the city —explains the president of the Fundació Joan Miró, Sara Puig—: a mural at the airport for people arriving by air (1970), a sculpture in Cervantes Park for those arriving by road, and a pavement on La Rambla for those arriving by sea (1976)." And a fourth gift: a center for contemporary art studies, the Fundació Joan Miró itself, designed by Josep Lluís Sert and conceived as "an open door to the future."
And while it is true that the sculpture planned for Cervantes Park was never built, arrival by land was finally covered by the Dona i ocell, in l'Escorxador Park (today Joan Miró Park), although the artist never got to see it installed because he died a few weeks before.
"Who would have told Miró that, half a century later, these works would welcome millions and millions of people every year?"
And decades later, the mosaic on La Rambla —more than 6,000 pieces— allows itself to be trodden upon; the airport mural —4,865 ceramic pieces— silently accompanies those who land; and the 21-meter sculpture of the Dona i ocell stands as a visible symbol from a distance. Who would have told Miró that, half a century later, these works would welcome millions and millions of people every year?
Now, Miró does not invent this vocation, he only makes it visible. In the 70s, Barcelona already had a tourist vocation, it already wanted to be looked at, lived, and shared; and Miró's works are just a sample, a culmination of a much earlier intuition. The city had already understood, at the beginning of the 20th century, that tourism could be much more than an economic activity.
In 1908, with the creation of the Sociedad de Atracción de Forasteros (Society for the Attraction of Foreigners), Barcelona formalized a pioneering idea: to use the attraction of visitors as a tool for modernization and cultural and economic enrichment. A year later, the first tourist information office opened on La Rambla, and Barcelona began to project itself to the world under the motto Barcelona, artistic and industrial.
Even then, tourism was understood as a lever for progress. A gateway —like Miró's— not only for visitors, "but for ideas, talent, opportunities, and investment," explains Mercè Conesa, general director of Barcelona Global.
The turning point: the 92 Olympic Games
Although the origins of Barcelona's tourist vocation date back to the early 20th century, the great structural leap would not arrive until many decades later. The Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games acted as a definitive catalyst and opened the city to the world. "This city of ours, this open city that is Barcelona, is today your city, the city of everyone," proclaimed Pasqual Maragall at the opening ceremony.
And the transformation was tangible. Barcelona opened up to the sea and recovered a coastline that had been degraded until then, reconnecting with the Mediterranean and generating new living spaces such as the beaches of Barceloneta. Old industrial areas were converted into new neighborhoods, such as the Vila Olímpica, and into activity spaces such as the Port Olímpic, completely redefining the relationship between city and coast.
At the same time, a structural improvement in mobility was addressed with the construction of the ring roads, which organized traffic and facilitated access. The city was thoroughly redeveloped, with renovated streets and public spaces that modernized the urban landscape and made it more livable. And a leap was made in key infrastructures: El Prat airport was expanded, telecommunications networks were reinforced, and hotel capacity was significantly expanded to accommodate a new scale of visitors.
"The Olympic Games were for Barcelona an engine of post-industrial reconversion until it became the global metropolis it is today"
In parallel, top-level sports facilities were built and renovated, such as the Estadi Olímpic and the Palau Sant Jordi, which are still part of the city's DNA today. All of this was completed with the creation of new urban icons —such as the Mapfre and Hotel Arts towers or the Collserola Tower— that not only defined a new skyline, but also a new way of projecting Barcelona to the world.
The '92 Games explain, better than any other episode, how Barcelona understood tourism as a lever for economic and social transformation. Not only as a volume of visitors, but as an engine of post-industrial reconversion until it became the global metropolis it is today.
And the figures clearly illustrate this turning point: if in 1990 Barcelona received 1.7 million visitors, in 1992 it was already 4.7 million. Today, however, the figure exceeds 26 million annual visitors.
But to focus only on the global figure is, in essence, misleading. Would great international artists come if they couldn't fill stadiums of 18,000 or 68,000 people? Would we be the third European city in number of congresses if we hadn't hosted the '92 Games? Would we be among the ten best cities in the world —eighth position in the World's Best Cities ranking in 2025— without that long-term vision? Would we have the current level of international talent or would we be one of the main startup hubs in the European Union if Barcelona hadn't had this tourist vocation long before the Olympic Games?
The Games were not just an event. They were a turning point. And, above all, a city decision.
The current photograph: an invisible dynamizer
Barcelona continues to be, in a way, that artistic and industrial city that presented itself to the world at the beginning of the 20th century. But today it is also a more complex reality: a global city, attractive to live, work, invest and visit… and which, precisely because of this, faces the limits of its own success.
Having been a pioneer in urban tourism has also meant knowing the impacts of its growth before anyone else; and now it is experiencing a paradoxical moment: it has managed to position itself as one of the most attractive cities in Europe, but that same success is profoundly transforming its social structure.
The challenges are evident: affordability and access to housing, the balance between the real city and the metropolis, or the social use of language. In the central neighborhoods, the arrival of new residents —the so-called Barcelonians by choice— has introduced new customs, from specialty coffee to brunch, while progressively integrating into neighborhood life, simultaneously straining the real estate market and some commercial balances.
"Tourism is omnipresent, but often invisible in its impact as a transversal driver"
And it is precisely in this balance —between opportunity and the tension generated— where tourism reveals its most complex role. Because tourism is omnipresent (it is seen in the figures and in the streets), but often invisible in its impact as a transversal driver: cultural, economic, social and business.
According to the Barcelona Tourism Observatory, the destination received a total of 26.1 million visitors in 2025 —16 million in the city and 10.1 million in the region— with a direct economic impact of more than 14,000 million euros. The airport exceeded 57 million passengers, while the port consolidated record figures in cruises and ferries, with almost 6 million passengers. In addition, the city hosts more than 2,000 congresses and annual events and has consolidated itself as the world's leading city for medical congresses.
But the photograph is not explained only by volume. In fact, reducing it to that is staying on the surface. "Quality tourism is not so much a question of quantity as of what it contributes —points out Mercè Conesa—. It must impact the economy, knowledge, culture, the quality of jobs. It must go far beyond GDP."
This idea redefines the role of the visitor seeking Barcelona: no longer just as a consumer, but as a connector. Thus, the city no longer competes only to attract tourists, but to attract talent, ideas, and opportunities. We see this, for example, in congress and knowledge tourism: events like the Mobile World Congress, with an impact of 585 million euros in 2025, position the city as a global hub for innovation and knowledge exchange.
And this multiplier effect is also especially visible in culture. The cultural sector linked to tourism generates more than 3.2 billion euros annually, and 70% of visitors to municipal museums are international. Without this demand, it would be difficult to sustain a first-class cultural offering.
From Joan Miró to Pablo Picasso, passing through modernism, tourism not only consumes culture: it finances it, keeps it alive, and projects it. It keeps cultural heritage alive and even helps to build new ones.
Xavier Martínez: "Thanks to tourism, we can stably finance the construction of the Sagrada Familia and move towards the completion of the work"
The clearest example is the Sagrada Familia. With nearly 4.8 million visitors annually, the temple is built, literally, thanks to tourism. "The arrival of tourism was a turning point. The entrance fee paid by visitors is a direct contribution to the construction. Thanks to this, we have been able to accelerate the pace and think about completion," explains its general director Xavier Martínez. He adds: "We are the fifth generation building the Sagrada Familia, and we have many resources that our predecessors did not have. Thanks to tourism, we can stably finance the construction and move towards the completion of the work."
The same happens in other less visible areas. Tourism generates close to 13% of the city's GDP and more than 164,000 jobs, but it also acts as a gateway to the labor market, finances public services, boosts local commerce, and contributes to preserving heritage. It is, at the same time, a lever for global connectivity that allows the city to maintain a network of international links, attract foreign investment, and consolidate itself as one of Europe's main startup hubs. But it often does so in an underlying way, and then it becomes an invisible infrastructure that is actually articulating the contemporary city.
Towards a model: from growing to choosing
And that is why the question, for some time now, is no longer whether Barcelona should have tourism, but what kind of tourism it wants to have. And the answer, in fact, has already been formulated.
In 2023, Turisme de Barcelona, under the direction of Mateu Hernández, made a conceptual shift that synthesized this new stage. After more than a decade with the slogan Visit Barcelona —an open, generic, global invitation— the city redefined its way of presenting itself to the world with a new message: This is Barcelona.
Thus, it went from promoting itself in a generalist way to doing so through its attributes: culture, architecture, gastronomy, music, knowledge. From seeking volume to selecting motivations. From attracting visitors to choosing those who bring more value, so that tourism can continue to be what it has always been —and what the Society for the Attraction of Foreigners conceived—: an invisible dynamizer.