Jordi Clos (El Raval, 1950) participated in the founding of Turisme de Barcelona in 1993 and has always been there. Now, the hotel businessman and also president of the Gremi d’Hotels, Jordi Clos, is once again at the head of the public-private consortium and announces a new stage of tourism management in the city.
The Collboni government and the consortium insist on managing tourism… Does managing mean reducing?
We begin a new stage in which all administrations are perfectly aligned. In 1993, Barcelona had 4.5 million hotel overnight stays, and now, with apartments we are over 30 million. It has been a very good promotional job on the part of Turisme de Barcelona but now we want to attract the client who does not come because the city is cheap or because they can do things here that cannot be done in other places, but come because they choose to. We want more sustainable, more cultural tourism.
How will they do it?
With the project that we have and that Mateu Hernández will lead, we will recover the commissions of experts who are specifically dedicated to developing the segments that interest us: culture, sports, gastronomy, medicine… and so I could easily name up to ten. Now I’ve been to Amsterdam… I haven’t seen any reference to the Picasso-Miró exhibition! I feel hurt. We have to enhance what we have and communicate it. The people who want to see this exhibition are the ones we want to have. This applies to gastronomy, the event that was awarded the Michelin stars was a great success. We have to follow this path.
Can a quality product be sold with the volume that the city registers in some areas?
Tourism has to be managed. Each city has its icon, Paris, Venice… We are lucky to have a Sagrada Familia, a Park Güell and a wonderful Rambla and we will not be able to stop people from going.
Measures can be taken, Venice limited cruises…
It is not Barcelona Tourism’s job to manage this… But I am very clear about it: people who arrive a few days before, take the cruise and when they return they stay a couple of days more, it is tourism of a very high level that does not harm the image from the city. Coming for a few hours is different. I also don’t like the tourism that comes to us in summer on buses from the Costa Brava and the Costa Daurada that arrive in the morning and return at night… Of these, at most 5% go to a museum.
Would they have to pay?
Well yes… A management formula would have to be found to limit this. They don’t pay tourist taxes, but they do use the city’s services and get dirty. The City Council is already on the job.
During these last eight years there has been a political wave very opposed to tourism and the term tourismphobia appeared, with graffiti, etc. This has placed the sector very defensive. Is it time to value tourism in positive terms or in terms of social benefit?
Completely. This is the mood of the new City Council. In the previous era it was the other way around… Now people are beginning to communicate where the tourist tax goes. For example, to pay for air conditioning in schools… and thus it is seen that tourism not only brings problems. In addition to the 14% it contributes to the GDP, other things are done that were not communicated before. There is a big difference between understanding with a person who does not want tourism, than with another who understands it and is in favor of it. Regarding tourismphobia, tourism had been the second cause of concern for citizens, now it is the seventh. Some 10,000 overnight stays are in tourist apartments and there is conflict there. For us they are a necessary element but they have created citizen conflicts. I remember the motto of the last demonstrations in Ciutat Vella: “We want hotels, not tourist apartments.”
The new law allows City Councils to reduce supply. Should Barcelona close tourist apartments?
Legal tourist apartments concentrated in entire buildings do not create any problems. Tourist apartments have to be, but legalized and grouped in a building. I’m lucky that I don’t have any in my house, but if you’re unfortunate enough to have a tourist flat on your staircase… They say that having them grouped together is expensive, of course! Having a hotel is expensive! But this is an effort that I believe will come. Now the institutions are in favor of this.
Is there room for growth in hotel beds and/or legal tourist apartments?
At this moment Peuat is already limiting growth. He gave himself freedom in the crown of the city but… how many have been made? Very few, because filling these hotels costs a lot.
So, is there little margin?
Bit. The only margin we see is not to think about growth but about the result. If we now have 30 million customers, it is not about going to 35 but about making it profitable. It is not time to grow, but to reconvert.
With more expensive rooms?
With better rooms. Fewer and bigger, but a natural reduction, not by law, because the hotel tries to improve quality.
Does Barcelona follow the model of any city?
It’s curious, but the models are very own. In London the opposite prevails, many and small rooms and in Paris also quite a lot… On the other hand, Bilbao or Malaga are more in our game, they bet on quality.
Within the league of the world’s great tourist cities, is Barcelona leading or can it lead this new model?
The cohesion model, yes. I am convinced. In the last 20 years Barcelona has been the only new European city to enter this league.
And Madrid?
Madrid is working very well. It has some spectacular things: culture and museums. And we will not win this. It has had a very important and strategic hotel growth. They have Four Seasons and we don’t. And on top of that, they now have very well-managed management. They have invested a lot in culture and do not stop holding exhibitions and making them international. It has been worked very well. We have the weather, the beach, modernism and Gaudí.
So, can we only envy the cultural promotion they do?
Cultural promotion and taking into account the Madrid Fair. Ours is very powerful but so is theirs…
Is there a good relationship between the Madrid and Barcelona sectors?
It would have to be better. This is a topic that I tried four years ago and politics did not agree. Now I will return. Because it is very good that everyone does their business and that we compete. If I can get you a fair, I will get it for you. And if he can take it from me, he will take it from me. But when we are going to sell Barcelona or Madrid in Washington, Los Angeles, New Delhi or Miami, our promotion would have to be very joint. For this audience, three hours on the train are nothing and you can talk to them about Gaudí and the Prado.
But for them to land here, at the Prat airport?
This is another story. I can’t comment.
Aren’t they looking for intercontinental tourists?
The expansion of the airport is a topic that escapes me. Now it is a political will.
We arrived late? Madrid is going for its fourth expansion…
Well, perhaps this is one of the reasons why Madrid has gained ground on us.
Now there is talk of a Government configuration in Barcelona, ??the previous configuration could be recovered or a new pact with Trias…
What interests me is maintaining the current harmony, no matter who it is. And what interests me is the structure that we now have at Turisme de Barcelona. Here we have always agreed. And when it could not be, as with the appointment of the last director general, we decided to wait six months until after the Chamber elections. At this moment we are online, and another very important thing, financially we are fine, with about two and five and a half million surpluses that the City Council has contributed for digitalization, which will allow us to make a brutal qualitative leap, to reach the people and build customer loyalty. That anyone, when they put Barcelona in the search engine, begins to receive information about museums, exhibitions… and that we can target a very specific audience… What happened to us with Picasso will not happen to us again, because 100 million people will have received the message that the exhibition is being made.
