I am writing this article while a good part of Barcelona residents enjoy a well-deserved vacation during the month of August. Each one enjoys them as they wish, or as they can, but the vast majority choose to pack their bags and enjoy a few days of disconnection from routine in a tourist destination, be it urban, rural, or a more or less nearby beach, or enjoying a great trip to another country or continent. Tourism is associated with an essential component such as mobility, both personal and family, so the tourist could be defined as a Homo Agitatus. The tourist is an animal that cannot stay still and constantly needs agitation and entertainment.
A reality that has consolidated an important global economic sector. Tourism today represents an indispensable pillar of the global economy, around 10% of GDP. It is one of the main sources of employment for many communities and an indispensable driver for many local economies. In the case of Spain, the weight of tourism in the economy exceeded 13% of GDP in 2024, and Exceltur forecasts indicate that tourism already accounts for 13.4% of national GDP in 2025. A success that explains 61% of the country's economic growth and employment. In the case of Barcelona, its weight reaches 14% of GDP, reaching 15.5 million visitors in 2024 with an average expenditure of 99.71 euros and an economic impact exceeding 10,000 million euros.
But despite these data, the debate about the limits or negative impacts of tourism associated with the negative effects of overcrowding in certain successful destinations, such as Barcelona, has emerged strongly. There are also voices that denounce its low productivity and low added value, precarious employment and low wages, as well as a negative social or environmental impact. Perhaps they are partly right on some of these issues, but the solution is not to discredit the sector, but to collectively think about how to enhance its most positive impacts and minimize negative impacts. Tourism, and what we have called the visitor economy, could be an accelerator for generating value for other sectors of great strategic interest such as green reindustrialization, organic agriculture, renewable energies, creative industries, or leveraging the potential of new technologies to truly develop smart destinations.
The problem is not the tourist, but our inability to manage tourism efficiently.For this, new forms of governance for the tourism sector are essential, providing it with greater coherence and sophistication. In the debate about its futurethe entire value chain of the sector must be involved,as well as other actors in society so that it continues to be a great asset to the economy with a process of intelligent transformation and adaptation.
Tourism is probably one of those sectors that best shows the inconsistencies and incapacities we have as a society. During the second half of the 20th century, we managed to make the democratization of tourism a reality, that is, the possibility that travel was within everyone's reach and not just a few. What was considered a social success, seems to be perceived today as a problem. In some of the trendy destinations, acts of tourismophobia emerge, caused by problems derived from the overcrowding of certain locations.
Beyond the passionate debates about specific cases and places, we must face the challenge of tourism management with a holistic, honest, and coherent reflection. Challenges that require reflection, new ideas, new narratives, a renewed offer, and new forms of governance. The problem is not the tourist, but our inability to manage tourism efficiently. We must rebuild the social and territorial pact for a new tourism that embraces economic, social, cultural, and environmental sustainability. Tourism will not decrease, quite the opposite, forecasts indicate that the global middle classes will go from 3.5 billion people to 5 billion people in 2050, mainly spurred by the emergence of Asian middle classes. Middle classes want to travel, so the incremental pressure in certain destinations will be even greater.
The visitor we should seek to attract is one who enjoys and cares for the destination regardless of their income levelNo one has the solution, but new forms of promotion and management of tourist flows will be necessary. Is it good news that Spain exceeds 100 million tourists a year? The consulting firm EY-Parthenon points out that until 2028, the opening of 775 new hotels in Spain is expected ---most of them, 4 and 5 stars---, with an investment of 7.8 billion euros. Thus, it does not seem that tourism, due to its economic and social importance, will decrease, but it must be aligned with sustainability, and not only environmental, sothe solution is more on the supply side than on the demand side, which will continue unstoppable.
The solution cannot be for tourist destinations like Barcelona to disproportionately increase prices to prevent tourists from coming. First, because it is unfair. Barcelona is a progressive and open city and must be able to offer options for young people and middle-class individuals who want to visit the city; that is part of the success of the city's emotional connection with the world. Secondly, because it is inefficient. Sustainable tourism is not achieved with tourism for the rich. It is a conceptual trap that is also unfair and incoherent from the perspective of social equity and environmental sustainability.
Data shows that visitors who spend the most are also generally those who pollute the most, generating three times more waste. We cannot accept the principle that whoever can pay can pollute and has the right to enjoy the city. The visitor we should seek to attract is one who enjoys and cares for the destination regardless of their income level. The more they spend, the better, but the goal should be to attract tourism that appreciates and respects the identity, material and immaterial heritage, and natural environment of the destination, becoming an accidental citizen with rights and responsibilities.
The great pending debate in tourism is that of the redistribution of flows, that is, the diversification of quality offerings with intelligent and efficient promotion of the territory, far from the incrementalist culture of recent decades. A great global conversation that incorporates tourists and visitors as allies in protecting the sustainability of destinations, transparently sharing data on the social and environmental burden of destinations and the territory. Only by involving visitors with the values and attributes we want to promote will promotional campaigns be effective.
The tourist has to perceive himself as an accidental citizen. He has the right to enjoy the city or the destination, but he must also be aware of his duties in preserving social, environmental, and territorial balance, as well as good coexistence between residents and visitors. A cultural change that will require a lot of pedagogy and also breaking with some patterns of tourism management from yesterday's world. Not only is the balance of the territory and coexistence at stake, but also the viability of tourism as we have known it in recent decades.
Thus, we need new, much broader, transversal, and sophisticated forms of thought, promotion, and tourism management and to break with some toxic dependencies of the current model to make the utopia of truly sustainable tourism a reality. We all want tourism, ma non troppo, in our towns and cities, but we are not willing to give up being tourists ourselves and enjoying our holidays. It is the squaring of the circle.