Summer season Figures from July – mid August
 

(next market report will be published on 28/09)

- Inland areas have seen that the degree of operation was generally higher than on the coast.
- Occupancy rate has ranged from 15% in Barcelona to 33% on the Costa Brava.
- Overnight stays have fallen by 58% in July.
- The average stay is reduced by 13%.
- Prices have a downward trend, but less than initially expected. The reduction goes from 15% in the case of hotels to 3% in the case of apartments.
- Provisional data for the first fortnight of August show higher activity, which currently ranges from 15 to 22 percentage points depending on the reference destination.

Measures to revert situation

- 10m€ for direct funding to tourism SMEs and professionals
- Activation of website: Catalunya-COVID19 to provide updated information on COVID-19 and trips to Catalonia: http://www.catalunya.com/info/covid to inform tourists
- Before summer season: Catalonia was planning to enter on the recovery mode and, to undertake promotional campaigns. Instead, due to the summer results, Catalonia has slightly changed the strategy by focusing on managing and providing dynamic information to the Catalan sector on the market restrictions (quarantine, recommendations, test, mobility limitations ...) as to support them in the reorientation of their business strategies.
- Catalonia will launch in the coming days the “Catalonia ReStart Tourism” programme, aiming to reactivate tourism, based on public-private partnership, where all stakeholders share information, debate and propose joint actions.  The programme will include the organisation of a cycle of three days’ capacity building sessions to support the reactivation of tourist activity in the region (October, November and December) tackling the following topics: 1) the demand (07/10), 2) the supply (November) and 3) actions for the future (December).
- Catalonia will continue undertaking promotional actions not being strongly impacted by the pandemic crisis. Catalonia has extended some campaigns, programmed for this year, until June 2021 to ensure a constant communication and promotion of the region towards the most strategic markets (domestic, neighbour and medium distance) to avoid communication “black holes”
- Catalonia is actively working to support the sector, creating community, helping to reflect on the paths that should allow them to reach recovery by transforming the current model: relying on innovation and digitalization to evolve towards a more sustainable and competitive model

Tourism and regional recovery plan

The Government of Catalonia presented in July the region plan for economic and social reactivation including 5 main priority lines:

1 - Economy for life

2 - Digitalization

3 - Ecologic Transition

4 - Knowledge based society

5 - Transversal Actions 

Total cost of the plan: 31.765 million euros. Cost for 2020:   2.760 million euros

At this moment, the regional recovery plan of Catalonia has not integrated tourism as a visible priority line. However, considering the cross-cutting approach of the sector, tourism will be allocated under some of the key regional priorities such as digitalization, ecologic transition and knowledge based society.

On the other hand, the Tourism Department of the Catalan Government and the Catalan Tourist Board are working on the Catalan tourism RESTART programme aiming to reactivate tourism (more information provided above)

Check the full Report on the Balance of the Tourism Season in 2020 in NECSTouR Regions