Barcelona’s Park Güell To Cut Visitor Numbers By Half A Million By 2027

ONE of Barcelona’s main tourer attractions will spot a melodramatic alteration successful visitors earlier nan twelvemonth 2027, approved by nan Barcelona City Council connected nan day of Wednesday, October 22. Park Güell, an iconic analyzable of parks and gardens designed by famed Catalan designer Antoni Gaudí, will spot 500,000 less visitors, pinch a driblet from nan existent 4.5 cardinal disposable tickets to 4 million, to beryllium implemented progressively complete 2 years.

A caller measurement to stave disconnected overtourism

The measurement plans to alteration nan ever-increasing unit of tourism connected nan area and particularly successful nan celebrated park, arsenic good arsenic relieve adjacent neighbourhoods, successful peculiar Horta-Guinardó and Gràcia, of nan unmanageable number of visitors each year.

In total, location will beryllium an 11 per cent regular simplification successful visitors, amounting to 1,365 less visitors each day, and astir 130 less each hour.

Last year, summons prices to participate Park Güell accrued from €10 to €18, which astir doubled Park Güell’s gross (which earlier nan hike successful 2023, was astir €34 cardinal annually). The simplification of guests by 500,000 is not expected to alteration nan park’s net by a concerning degree.

The parkland has besides switched nan method of acquiring tickets successful bid to stave disconnected unmanageable tourer numbers, moving from some online and in-person to solely online. Additionally, nan wave of section buses to nan parkland has accrued successful bid to minimise congestion, and nan neighbourhood 116 autobus was moreover removed arsenic an action from Google Maps successful an effort to make it resident-only.

The effort is welcome, but ‘insufficient’

According to Councillor Jordi Coronas of Catalan left-wing pro-independence statement Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, who submitted nan proposal, nan measurement is “insufficient” for section residents but is simply a “needed step” towards nan betterment of nan tourist-local equilibrium successful nan city, which has agelong been a constituent of contention.

Leader of ERC, aliases nan Republican Left successful nan City Council, Elisenda Alamany, explained that nan group’s eventual extremity for nan measurement was for nan parkland “to beryllium to nan group of Barcelona again.” Alamany besides stated that nan group will proceed to trim nan capacity of nan parkland successful nan future, claiming existent measures are not enough.

The scheme to alteration visitors will beryllium submitted to BSM, nan agency that manages nationalist infrastructure successful nan city.

Park Güell and nan struggle for a patient tourism equilibrium successful Barcelona

The number of visitors to Park Güell has been dramatically restricted since nan 2020 COVID lockdown, earlier which nan number of yearly visitors to nan landmark was astir 9 million. Since then, that number has been halved.

Notwithstanding, nan parkland has been a awesome talking constituent for section residents and Barcelona natives who position it arsenic their puerility parkland and a portion of their location neighbourhoods. In bid to quell nan tensions, Park Güell offers neighbouring residents (specifically from nan neighbourhoods of El Coll, Vallcarca-Penitents, La Salut, El Carmel, Can Baró and Baix Guinardó), a free entree card, which “guarantees them unrestricted entree free of complaint each nan twelvemonth information to bask nan area.”

Residents still person pending demands for entree to their park, including a connection to make nan parkland resident-only 1 Sunday per month, and making it easier for section organisations and businesses to clasp events successful nan parkland venue.

Antoni Gaudí: Barcelona’s astir emblematic designer

Park Güell is 1 of Barcelona’s astir visited landmarks, owed to its idyllic views and chopped Gaudí architecture, and successful truth has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Spanning 19 hectares and situated connected nan slope of Turó del Carmel hill, it overlooks nan city, making it a desirable touristic destination. Catalan designer and designer Antoni Gaudí is responsible for galore of Barcelona’s iconic buildings and landmarks, including nan Casa Batlló, located connected Passeig de Gràcia, and Barcelona’s astir emblematic landmark, nan Sagrada Família, an tremendous religion successful nan bosom of nan city. The basilica is 1 of nan astir celebrated buildings not conscionable successful Catalonia, but successful nan full of Spain.

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