The Government of Catalonia today presented the National Commitment to Responsible Tourism, the roadmap for Catalan tourism, which has been signed by more than one hundred companies and organisations. The President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès, has remarked that this Commitment is “the fruit of consensus,” and “identifies the basic principles that unite and strengthen such a decisive sector for our economy.” Aragonès has opted for “advancing towards an even more sustainable, more diverse, socially fairer and more territorially balanced tourism” and for “focusing all the potential we have in Catalonia to guarantee the well-being of citizens and environmental resources.”

In his speech, Pere Aragonès argued that the almost 15 million tourists who visited Catalonia last year and the good forecasts for the coming years “are figures that call for a more sustainable model at all levels”. For this reason, he insisted that “we have to work to maximise the positive impact and correct those impacts that we do not like” and to adapt them to the climatic conditions of each moment, recognising the effort that the sector is making in this respect.

For the President, “innovation” is one of the keys that should help the sector to better know its needs and thus be able to “offer an even better product.” He also considered that the new tourism model should take into account the country in its entirety, “seeking to achieve balance and a better spread of tourism throughout the territory,” that it should be a model that is “socially fairer, more inclusive and with better working conditions,” and that definitively incorporates “a feminist perspective in decision-making.”

The Catalan Government has reaffirmed its commitment to the sector, noting that the new budget allocates “€108.5 million to promote responsible and sustainable tourism,” with the aim of bringing “more prosperity and well-being” to all citizens.

A Commitment with 67 challenges and objectives

The National Commitment to Responsible Tourism, coordinated by José Antonio Donaire Benito, lecturer in the Faculty of Tourism at the University of Girona, is the result of a process of collective participation and an effort to reconcile very diverse projects and views of the country, which defines 67 challenges and objectives.

23 initiatives for environmentally sustainable tourism

Catalan tourism aims to be a strategic sector for the country in the fight against climate change, in the decarbonisation of the economy, in the preservation of biodiversity, in energy efficiency, in the rational use of increasingly scarce resources and in the reduction of waste.

Among other objectives, the Commitment aims to: bring the average water consumption of tourists in line with the consumption of the resident population by 2040; halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050; achieve 100% green energy consumption by 2035; and 100% clean leisure mobility by 2050.

19 initiatives for socially just tourism

The National Commitment to Responsible Tourism is the country’s response to a new social, demographic and cultural scenario and places people’s well-being at the centre of the tourism strategy. For this reason, the agreement reflects the commitment of the Catalan tourism sector to continue reducing the economic, personal, social and cultural barriers that limit universal access to tourism; to continue working to improving employment conditions in the sector; to consider a new qualification-based training strategy; and to move from tourism management to a visitor economy.

Some of the challenges included in the Commitment are: accessible access to all specially protected natural areas in Catalonia by 2040; ensuring tourism companies and institutions have an equality plan and a protocol against forms of harassment in place by 2030; moving from a tourism model in which the LGTBI+ community is a segment, to a new paradigm in which the sector focuses on diversity management; and considering tourism as a tool for the physical and mental health of older people.

13 initiatives for territorially balanced tourism

The agreement for responsible tourism is based on the principle that Catalan tourism’s main asset must be diversity, and it also includes converting mature destinations towards a responsible model.

The objectives in this area include: working to ensure an increase of 20% in the relative weight of non-tourist activities in the employment of coastal municipalities by 2030; limiting the use of natural areas in accordance with international carrying capacity criteria; integrating intangible heritage into the national and international tourism offering in order to connect visitors with the country’s ethnological and cultural traditions; and working towards the integration of cultural industries and tourism as part of an overall reconnection between the country’s culture and tourism activities.

12 initiatives for innovation-based tourism

Catalonia aspires to be a benchmark in tourism knowledge management by connecting the tourism sector with the fields of technology and knowledge, working under the criteria of sustainability and digitalisation.

Key objectives in this area are: to increase the average length of stay by 25% by 2030 compared to the 2019 value; to consider a horizon for the stabilisation of the tourist accommodation supply, increasing the profitability of existing facilities rather than creating new ones; and to ensure that the resources from the tourist stay tax are used to promote Catalonia’s tourist image in accordance with the general parameters of the National Commitment to Responsible Tourism.