by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:00 PM ET, Thu July 25, 2024
The “Visit Barcelona” slogan is set to become a thing of the past.
Amid growing anti-tourism protests, the Barcelona Tourism office has decided it’s time for a new approach.
The city’s new motto will be “This is Barcelona” and is set to launch on August 22, according to a report in Catalan News.
The launch of the new motto will align with the first day of the America’s Cup preliminary regatta.
The “Visit Barcelona” motto has been in place since 2009, but is being eliminated to “end the city's general promotion and focus on quality tourism rather than the quantity of visitors,” according to Catalan News.
The new slogan is also an attempt to focus on what Barcelona really is, which its leaders say includes being a city of traditions, sports, gastronomy, museums, and music festivals.
"A real and specific Barcelona, and not just a landscape," Mateu Hernández, general director of the Barcelona Tourism board, said during a meeting with journalists, according to Catalan News.
"We put an end to a global call for them to visit us, and we do a step forward in highlighting us," Hernández said during the meeting.
The move comes amid a wave of protests by locals who are fed up with the numbers of people visiting the city. Those protests included a demonstration of about 2,800 people who are opposed to mass tourism in Barcelona. The protestors even squirted water at tourists in the city.
They also have a slogan of their own: “Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism!" and are demanding a reduction of tourism.
The change in the slogan also follows on the heels of other recent measures in Barcelona designed to curb overtourism. City
officials announced earlier this week that the tourist tax for cruise passengers
visiting the city for less than 12 hours would be “substantially” increased.
According to Sky
News, Barcelona Mayor Jaume
Collboni has said the tourism tax is going to increase, but he has yet to confirm how much
the price will jump. The tax for stopover cruise passengers is
currently €7 ($7.60.)
In 2023, Barcelona received more than 12 million tourists,
and government officials expect the number to increase in 2024.
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