Turisme de Barcelona Has Approved the Strategic Lines for 2021-2022

Turisme de Barcelona General Council has celebrated the first annual session of 2021, where the accounts and the action plan for the next two years have been approved, and also the amendment of the Consortium bylaws has been accepted and awaiting for the Chamber of Commerce and the Barcelona City Council final approval. Broadly speaking, in the words of the Turisme de Barcelona President, Eduard Torres, "revoke and replace the previous obsolete bylaws for a newer ones providing a cohesive work confirming the public-private partnership, introducing the consensus as a tool for the future agreements and also extending the Barcelona influence area".

As reported by CEO Marian Muro, "The Consortium will work, in the following two years, in a plan to increase the promotion and the Destination Barcelona marketing, presenting the destination with a multiplicity content according to its attributes but also creating new ones".

The plan considers the creation of new contents and associated projects to the attributes and segments (classic or new) of Barcelona; to line up the new content and projects to those ones we want to make known, creating a new storytelling, promoting through the profiles segmentation and selecting markets to guarantee extra valued tourism to the city which spends more in the city but it is also sustainable and respectful with the city.

The Consortium will be focused on culture, as main focus of the city attributes, contributing and promoting big events which will position Barcelona in the worldwide culture map. The culture in the broadest sense; the architecture, the art, the creative industries, the design, Barcelona as a city of literature, Barcelona as a cinema city and those big filming sets.

Promotion and Marketing

All the marketing strategy has been redefined starting from the storytelling and the Barcelona attributes we want to make known to the world in order to establish and to define the niche segmentation and profiles. "We need to control our storytelling, to define the attributes we want to be recognised in the world, and we need to search those interesting visitors for the city, visitors with added value which will bring money to Barcelona but also those ones who are sustainable and respectful with the destination".

In the same sense, the marketing strategy needs to allow, during this two years, the closing of the Customer Service circle where the contact and the continuous communication with the visitor, before, during and after its travel. To keep a permanent contact with him, assisting and accompanying during the visit. The visitor as a co-creator of the Barcelona brand through the development of the digital tools".

With an initial budget of 12Millions € for two years for this promotional plan as long as the pandemic situation will be recovered, the Consortium will encourage the co-marketing to establish agreements with companies interested in going together with Turisme de Barcelona when promoting the city.

Promotion for Markets and segments

Promotion needs to be selective. "Choosing those markets which are interesting and to value the return of the promotions we have already done. The plan considers to work with the following markets: Domestic, European and Global. During this two years we want to increase a 15% the domestic market (it has been decreasing year after year and it is very interesting for us due to its proximity approaching to those specific market profiles interested in the culture, the gastronomy and the maritime Barcelona). In this sense, a specific communication strategy will be displayed for the local public as destination ambassadors".

The European market, it is also important: defining the countries and strategic markets and finally, the greatest commitment must be for the South East Asia and American markets. It is expected that the South-East Asia countries will be the main big market of the 21st Century and Barcelona must be ready in 3-4 years with a leadership position. These are markets with a great value, long period visitors which are interested in the culture, the gastronomy and shopping with a big expense for the destination.

To neutralize the carbon footprint

The sustainability is not a commitment anymore, is a real action. The Consortium will promote actions to neutralize the carbon footprint in the tourism industry, providing new circuits for a responsible visit of Barcelona, and making the BCN accessible public and categorizing the tourism products according to the SDG's compliance.

In addition to continue with the Sustainability internal plan to minimize the entity ecological footprint, the Consortium will promote the city between the growing public who are searching a respectful experience with the environment and urban areas.

Digitalisation

One of the main aspects in which the Turisme de Barcelona President, Eduard Torres, has expressed its interest is the necessity to take a step forward in the digitalisation when promoting the city. "To obtain the enforcement of these 4 guidelines, Turisme de Barcelona and the city itself, must believe in the digitalisation as a tool to be more sustainable, but also to have a continuous contact with the visitor and especially to obtain knowledge (Big data) in order to make decisions". "The digitalisation will be a key factor in the competition of Barcelona as a tourism destination".