The Ciutat Vella District and Barcelona Activa have launched the Technical Office for Responsible Tourism, an advisory and coordination service designed to strengthen the social benefits generated by tourism in Ciutat Vella. The initiative connects hotels and cultural venues with local businesses, neighbourhood services and social and employment organisations in order to create job opportunities and encourage visitors to buy products and services from the district.

The aim is to ensure that economic activity linked to visitors contributes to the well-being of local residents and to the development of a more balanced, locally rooted and sustainable tourism model. To achieve this, the office works to facilitate the recruitment of local professionals, encourage purchasing from local suppliers, and promote the district’s businesses and culture among visitors.

Connecting the tourism sector with the local community

The new office is the result of joint work by the District, Barcelona Activa and the hotel, retail and cultural sectors. It builds on initiatives such as Compra a Ciutat Vella, a digital catalogue of distinctive, sustainable businesses with strong local roots. Launched as a pilot project in summer 2024, the initiative is promoted in collaboration with the district’s hotels to introduce visitors to local businesses and products that stand out for their talent, social value and connection with the surrounding area.

Building on this experience, collaboration has been extended to other local stakeholders in order to increase the positive impact of the visitor economy. The Technical Office has already held more than 60 meetings and made contact with hotels, hotel chains and cultural venues to identify recruitment needs and opportunities to purchase local products and services. At the same time, it has begun establishing links with social and employment organisations to help fill vacancies with professionals from the district, in coordination with Barcelona Activa.

In this way, the initiative responds to one of the demands expressed by local residents during the discussions on the Ciutat Vella Pact: ensuring that tourism generates positive benefits for the community and contributes to high-quality, sustainable local economic development.

Four areas of action to generate social impact

The Technical Office for Responsible Tourism focuses on four areas of activity aimed at strengthening links between the tourism and cultural sectors and the economic and social fabric of Ciutat Vella:

  • Local employment and recruitment: Facilitating the recruitment of people from the district, strengthening collaboration with organisations that support access to employment and employment networks, promoting local recruitment criteria and identifying work placement opportunities for local vocational training students.

  • Local purchasing and supply: Identifying opportunities for hotels and cultural and tourism venues to purchase products and services from businesses in the district, ranging from work materials and supplies to artistic products and merchandise.

  • Promoting local businesses: Raising awareness of the Compra a Ciutat Vella catalogue and encouraging staff at the venues to do their everyday shopping at local businesses, among other initiatives.

  • Corporate social responsibility and collaboration with the local community: Encouraging joint projects involving hotels, cultural venues, social organisations, educational centres and other local stakeholders, through initiatives such as exhibitions by artists from the district, joint events and projects involving vulnerable groups.

Through this initiative, Ciutat Vella aims to move towards a form of tourism that creates opportunities beyond the sector itself and helps strengthen local businesses, employment and community life. It is a commitment to responsible tourism in which collaboration between stakeholders and strong ties with the local area are key to ensuring that the benefits of economic activity also reach the people who live there.