On the same day that he was sworn in as president of the Chamber of Commerce, Josep Santacreu appointed hotelier Jordi Clos as the new president of Turisme de Barcelona “with immediate effect”. The replacement of the president of the consortium for the last four years, the hotelier Eduard Torres, was one of the first decisions of the new head of the Chamber. Jordi Clos was already vice-president of the consortium and also chairs the Barcelona Hotel Association.
According to the statutes of the tourist consortium, the appointment of the Barcelona Tourism presidency corresponds to the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which has just held elections. The new president, Josep Santacreu, took office on Monday, October 9, and the replacement of Torres by Clos was one of the first resolutions signed and ratified by the secretary general of the entity.
The Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona was founded in 1993 and is made up of the Chamber and the City Council. The highest governing body is the general council, chaired by the mayor of Barcelona. According to municipal sources, Mayor Jaume Collboni will convene the general council next week. In addition to ratifying the appointment of Jordi Clos, the appointment of Mateu Hernández, one of the founders and former general manager of Barcelona Global, will also be proposed as the entity’s new general manager.
In this way, the City Council intends to take advantage of the same act to unblock the process of covering the vacancy in the general management after the termination of Marian Muro in September of last year. Muro’s departure, questioned by the business sector, sparked an internal crisis at Turisme de Barcelona. Then, a process was opened to select candidates for general director, which indicated Mateu Hernández as the best placed to assume the position. However, at the time the president of the entity, Eduard Torres, did not consider this name appropriate, so the appointment process was postponed and Torres decided that he too would personally assume the role of general director.
The municipal government now intends to put an end to the interim period and take advantage of the appointment of the new president of Turisme de Barcelona.
For his part, after finishing his time at Barcelona Global, Hernández joined the Batlló international business development team shortly before the summer.
It is reported that Eduard Torres was part of Eines de País, the rival candidacy to that of Santacreu for the presidency of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, so that the relief at the head of Turisme de Barcelona was taken for granted after of the victory of the last. Not surprisingly, the statutes of the Tourism Consortium specify that the president of the Chamber can directly delegate the position to a member as long as he is part of the entity’s plenary session and is also a member of the consortium’s general council. Jordi Clos fulfills both requirements: he is currently the third vice-president of the general council of the consortium and also a member of the plenary session of the Chamber.
Municipal sources explain that the new stage of Barcelona Tourism begins in a good economic moment after the pandemic and that the strategy will revolve around the three axes that align with the tourism policy of the current socialist municipal government. First of all, the focus will be on conference and business tourism and the role of Fira de Barcelona and international events will be promoted. Secondly, give value and implement measures and policies that prioritize quality over quantity to slow down and reverse the consequences of mass tourism. And, thirdly, give a decisive boost to the development and application of new technologies applied to tourism management to improve and make services more profitable and to monitor and segment visitors to Barcelona and, in this way, be able to design more adjusted policies to the interests of the city.
