British holidaymakers are visiting Barcelona in declining numbers amid local overtourism protests and high accommodation costs, with annual UK visitors dropping 4.1 per cent to 1.5 million in 2025. While Americans now lead foreign arrivals, travellers from the UK increasingly explore alternative Catalan destinations like Girona and Sitges instead.
British tourists were once the largest group of foreign visitors to the Catalan capital. Council figures show that Britons now account for 7.5 per cent of all visitors, down from 8.2 per cent, i Newspaper reported.
Why are British tourists shifting away from Barcelona?
José Antonio Donaire, the city council’s sustainable tourism commissioner, said that Americans have replaced Britons as the city’s top demographic. About 2.86 million US citizens visited Barcelona last year, marking a 0.5 per cent increase compared to 2024.
Rising accommodation prices and local demonstrations against mass tourism help explain the changing patterns. A British owner with a property on the city’s outskirts noted that protests involving water pistols and “Tourists Go Home” placards likely deter bookings.
“I think that the protests against over tourism might be putting them off,” a British owner with a property on the city's outskirts said.
Sustainable tourism consultant Xavier Pascuet explained that transport logistics and hotel bills influence traveler behavior. Visitors flying across the Atlantic often use Barcelona as the starting point for a broader Spanish itinerary or a Mediterranean cruise, whereas short-break travelers weigh weekend hotel costs against alternative European cities like Lisbon.
How is the city managing visitor numbers?
Barcelona attracted 16 million tourists last year, and 76 per cent of residents surveyed in February believe the destination has reached saturation point. At the same time, 75 per cent of locals view tourism as a positive factor for the city.
City authorities plan to ban short-stay cruises docking for less than 12 hours. Officials will also reduce the number of cruise terminals from five to seven by 2030 and raise the daily tourist tax for short-haul cruise passengers from €12 to €30.
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Total Annual Visitors (2025) | 16 million |
| US Visitors (2025) | 2.86 million |
| UK Visitors (2025) | 1.5 million |
| Chinese Visitors (2025) | 536,048 |
| Current Hotel Bed Cap | 156,000 places |
Donaire insisted that a planned airport expansion, which requires European Union approval to raise passenger capacity from 55 million to 70 million, will serve international business rather than fuel leisure tourism growth. He added that the total number of accommodation places will remain capped at the current 156,000.
“There is an option [to limit tourism], which is to limit supply,” the city council's sustainable tourism commissioner José Antonio Donaire said.
Joan Manel, a spokesman for the campaign group Zeroport, disputed those projections. He argued that expanding the regional transport infrastructure will inevitably drive up visitor volumes through regional bus transit.
