Jordi Valls (Manresa, 1960) is the fourth deputy mayor of Barcelona and has assumed the areas of Economy, Finance and Economic Promotion, in addition to managing the Eixample district, the most populated in the city.
The management of tourism was one of the topics of debate in the electoral campaign. How will he handle it?
We have to share a vision with the sector and decide how we manage the 17 million tourists who visit us and who create a very important density. Tourism represents 14% of the city’s GDP and there is a high degree of dependence. We must know how to manage the balance of the arrival of tourists so that it does not affect or cause discomfort, because it does, in the activity of the people.
Has Barcelona reached the tourist limit?
We already have it. And at certain times, the level of density is very high. But making this demonstration is not against tourism. We don’t want this success story to end badly, as a city we have to know how to manage it. The sector has economic interests, but we must share that there will be certain limitations. The ideal would be to do it with the sector.
What limitations does it pose?
We will talk to the industry to see if we agree that we are hitting limits, and if we agree, we will have to hit several pieces. The City Council will not renounce its regulatory capacity and its fiscal capacity. But I’m interested in working with the sector, sharing the vision. We have a new reality. Twenty years ago 90% of the city said that tourism was positive, now 60% say so.
And does this require limiting the opening of new hotels?
This requires maintaining the Peuat, there are hotel places available in the metropolitan area. We have already said in a clear and exceptional way that an exception can be made for very specific cases.
And the tourist flats?
The City Council will not be neutral in the face of this reality. We want to discourage this activity.
With?
From a fiscal and regulatory point of view. The City Council has done a very good job in recent years because it has slowed the growth of tourist flats to 9,000 since 2015. We do not want them to grow and we will use all the instruments that we as the City Council or Generalitat can have.
What will he do with the cruises?
The port will do a very important job with decarbonisation, but the discussion is if we can have more growth in cruise passengers. Visions need to be shared here. If the measures are taken individually they will generate headlines, but they will not necessarily be effective. I think that together everything can turn out better, but the City Council will not give up its regulatory capacity.
Janet Sanz asked to reduce cruise terminals at the end of her term.
You need to have a ten-year vision. If not, we won’t make it. Tourism is so important to us and there are so many interests that either we all share this reality or we will do nothing. Notes and press conferences are an expression of will, but it is not a process of transformation.
Amsterdam has banned cruise ships. Do you share it?
Arguably, because Amsterdam has the port of Rotterdam an hour away, what it has done is move the problem.
Will the tourist tax increase?
If necessary, yes.
What is this fee for?
We need to better define where we want to allocate it. Part of the money must be allocated to promotional elements that interest us, such as cultural ones, but above all it must be used to pay for the services most under pressure from tourism, such as cleaning or security.
What role should the Turisme de Barcelona consortium play?
An important role. We have a Tourism Consortium that has been five years without a general director with some stability and that has no ability to determine a vision. Turisme de Barcelona has been doing promotion for 30 years and now it won’t have to do it, or it won’t have to do as much. We also have to see what we do with mobility, an internal management not exclusively at the demand of the sector, because we also need to understand the demand of citizens and find a balance.
Should the weight of tourism in the city’s economy continue to grow?
If we agree, we will make decisions. There are things that should grow and others that should not. We need to invest more to diversify this economy. Opt for industrialization from a metropolitan perspective and develop sectors such as health or defense-related technology, which will grow by 2.5% of GDP in ten years.
The commercial sector complains about the difficulty their customers from outside the city have to get to Barcelona because of the actions against the car. What do you propose?
It is not good to take a negationist approach to everything. I understand the trade claim. There are things that are not just the car and I admit it, public transport needs to be improved. The more public transport the better, the more connectivity. Maybe Barcelona has moved too fast and the improvement of public transport is very slow. There are people in Barcelona who have cars and have the right to continue to have cars, we cannot ban absolutely everything. We have not appreciated that technology can help mobility. We have companies that are eager to work, such as Seat, and we must take advantage of these opportunities. We cannot send the message that the city does not want cars when here you have a company with a turnover of 14,000 million and whose main objective is the decarbonisation of the system. We are all aware of the climate crisis, but the big discussion is the speed we give to this fight.