The objective of this institution is to collect data that would enable the city to manage theunprecedented influx of tourism in a more efficient way, as well as to engageresidents and companies and prepare other local infrastructures for the new organization’sevents. The organization plans to focus its research on the following three geographical areas: Barcelona’s counties,Barcelona’s regions, including other municipalities up to the territories that border other provinces, and, finally, the city and its districts in general. Damia Serrano, the Project Coordinator, recently discussed this initiative in more detail during the project presentation in Espai Francesca Bonnemaison.
Agusti Colom, Tourism Adviser, has emphasized the importance of promoting the areas adjacent to Barcelona as tourist destinations as well. The auxiliary data collected by the observatory will be sent to the region for further work in this field. The authorities also plan to take into account the results of research carried out in various regions of Barcelona over the last few years. Moreover, the activities of the tourism observatory aim to help neutralize the at times negative impact of excessive tourism in the region. Colom underscored that the residents of Barcelona respect their guests, but sometimes they also demand some measures to curb the negative effects caused by tourism.
Additionally, the initiative proposes to introduce a new,‘intellectual tourism system’ based on the experiences of prior tourists to the city and those who stillplan to visit. The program will collect and analyze data about the primary places for tourist activity and the hotels and organizations tourists visit mostby using the ‘smart city’ method.