Barcelona tourism chief plans caps to curb overtourism

Barcelona’s new sustainable tourism chief is pushing the city toward a hard ceiling on visitor growth, with plans to cap access at private monuments and spread foot traffic away from the city’s most saturated streets. José Antonio Donaire, appointed by Mayor Jaume Collboni in July 2025, says the city’s goal is no longer to maximize arrivals but to manage congestion, housing pressure and the daily strain on neighborhood life.

Donaire, a geography professor at the University of Girona and director of INSETUR, was appointed to reinforce Barcelona’s tourism-management policies after years of mounting resident anger. Barcelona received 16.0 million visitors in 2025, up 2.9% from 2024, equal to an average daily presence of about 160,000 people. Across the wider destination, Barcelona and its surrounding region ended 2025 with 26.1 million tourists and €14.041 billion in direct tourism spending.

Tourism accounts for 12.6% of the city’s GDP and supports about 130,000 direct jobs, according to the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. Anti-mass-tourism protests on June 15, 2025, opposed crowded public spaces and the pressure of short-stay visitors on housing and services.

Donaire said Barcelona should move away from growth-based tourism and instead manage saturation and its externalities. In April 2026, he said the city should limit capacity at private monuments and direct more visitors beyond the most congested zones, including areas around Park Güell and La Rambla.

In June 2026, Barcelona’s left-leaning governing bloc agreed to raise the tourist tax on cruise passengers from €8 to €24, a move that could push the total levy for some short-stay cruise visitors to €30 once the regional surcharge is added. Critics in the travel industry, including the World Travel & Tourism Council, warn that sharper tax increases could weaken Barcelona’s competitiveness and reduce visitor spending.