Executive Summary: Strategic Tourism Plan for Barcelona Destination

This report provides an executive summary of a strategic tourism plan for Barcelona, focusing on its vision, aims, and objectives. It analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, both positive and negative, and examines competitor analysis using the Destination Amalgam model, comparing Barcelona to Rome and London. The report identifies market structures, target segments, and visitor trends, while also assessing the destination's competitiveness through the 4As framework (Availability, Affordability, Awareness, and Acceptability). It highlights Barcelona's competitive advantages and evaluates the destination's environment, including political factors. The report concludes with recommendations for improving Barcelona's tourism strategy.

STRATEGIC TOURISM
PLAN

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-
Barcelona is the most popular destination, where millions of travellers visit to enjoy some
time with friends and family members. The current study is based on this specific destination. It
has been identified that by following effective tactics and using methods the tourism sector at
this destination has overcome the negative impact of pandemic, which affect tourist and local
people living standards. Furthermore, from this study it has been determined that by using
amalgam model, the attractiveness of Barcelona has been analysed that has been used to gain the
attention more travellers.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
A strategic tourism plan is defined as set of aims, objectives and tactics, which a
company may created to achieve desire outcomes. This plan may help to assure a
desirable quality of tourism items and services. Strategic tourism plan encompasses key
elements and stages that support to guide individual person to perform accordingly and
achieve set goals. The current study will be based on Barcelona, which falls under list of
top 10 destinations in the world. The assignment will explain key vision, objectives and
goals in context of specific destination. Furthermore, it will explain principle of
competitors, destination competitiveness and market structure. The report will examine
destination's environment and justify dimensions of destination competitiveness. It will
define appraise of new destination performance and aggressiveness and will also justify
appropriate suggestions based on overall analysis.
MAIN BODY
Determining vision, aims and objectives in context of Barcelona as new
destination
Barcelona in one of the most beautiful and popular tourism destinations in the
world. This destination is known for its excellent architecture and exceptional soccer. It
is famous for serene parks, tasty tapas, golden shoreline and museums. This city is
home to amazing beaches, and a culture as beautiful as it was.
Aim-
The current overall goal of Barcelona is to effectively build a triple bottom line
sustainable destination which goes beyond limitations of city.
Objectives-
 To assure city success, maintain its uniqueness and competencies.
 To add value to entire value chain and promote new experiences.
 To prevent people from any kind of disaster.
 To boost economic growth.
 To turn tourism into a creative activity by adding more value.
Negative and positive4 impact of corona-virus-

COVID-19 is the worst pandemic that has been occurring in the world. It has
affected the world negatively and destroys human lives as well. Each nation has taken
initiatives to overcome the negative impact of this pandemic. Barcelona is one of them,
which taken varied actions and conduct practices doing so. Corona-virus put affect,
which may divided into two parts and that are following-
Positive impact-
COVID-19, affect in positive manner, in context of Barcelona and the entire
world. For example, it reduces extent of air pollution up to 50% and improved rural
tourism up to 20-40%, which is a quite amazing thing (Son and et.al., 2020). Due to
pandemic, flight cancellation has contributed to decrease air pollution, which is one of
the major concerns of sustainable tourism management. Furthermore, just because of
same factor, rural tourism has also improved a lot.
Negative impact-
It is quite obvious that as a pandemic, COVID-19 put a negative impact on
nations and regions as well as individual person life. For example, just because of this
factor international arrivals slumped quickly, which is not beneficial for aviation
sector. As it decrease the sales, profitability and productivity of industry and other
sectors as well that are connected with it. The United Nations world tourism company
estimated that international tourist arrivals and travels decreased by 58 to 98%, which
leads to major loss of trillion (Gössling, Scott and Hall, 2020). It put negative impact on
tourist arrival ration in Barcelona, which may affect local business and major enterprises
a lot.
Furthermore, due to pandemic people use sanitizers the most, which affect their
health. The usage of sanitization has increased more and more, which is harmful. It
may adversely affect environment.
Establishing principle competitors and market structure-
It is quite important to identify the competitors, available at specific locations or
destinations where a company may plan to enter.
Coopertition-

This term defines process of being competitive and competing always. It is a
combination of competition and cooperation (Kim and et.al., 2020). It is based on idea of
a company, sector and destination that help to compete.
It applied in context of Barcelona as new destination. Different types of models
and concepts are accessible in the world of business in context of conducting
competitive analysis, which in return help to identify the main competitor of Barcelona at
both international and domestic level. Here, Destination Amalgam model is used to
make comparison between destinations. It is relevant in the context of this work,
because it make clear comparison based on key attractiveness between two or more
destinations. According to this concept, when Barcelona and its other competitors work
together, they may provide a lot of benefits to economy, environment and tourist as well.
Competitor 1 Strengths-
Rome-
 This destination is the main competitor of Barcelona. It gives competition to
chosen destination by using key strengths. For example, this city is build on
seven hills, which falls under list of natural attractions. Another strength of Rome
is its heritage sites that are 55.
 Rome airport has 4 terminals that dedicated to civil aviation. The transportation
system is quite good in destination as its cheap transport card permit using
almost all terms of public transportation.
 As compare to other destinations, accommodation services in Rome is much
better. It offers other tourist services as well like food & beverage appropriately.
 In Rome, tour operators may offer attractive and cost effective packages to
tourist.
 Vespa rides is one of those fun activities that much tourist experience and enjoy
(Best Fun Things To Do in Rome, Italy, 2021). The degree of fun activities in
Rome extent low.
 It includes accessibility of banks, hospitals and other services that tourist may
utilized. Rome had 11 banking group and also had 1,119 hospitals.
London-

 There are varied things accessible in the London that are included in list of
natural attractions, which made it the another competitor of Barcelona. For
example, it has 20 natural attractions, which may include in list of destination
strengths.
 It had four terminals and excellent transportation system, which made things
easy for those companies that provides and sells products and services related
to tourists.
 London had provided the best and top class accommodation services to each
guest as it had top 10 hotels and other sources as well through which tourism
and hospitality sectors offer the best stay services to people.
 In London only 23% of market relate to traditional pre-programmed packages.
 30 fun activities are available in London, through which visitors may enjoy much
and get better experience (Fraiz, de Carlos and Araújo, 2020). It had 300 banks
and 298 clinics or hospitals in London. These services may define as major
strengths of London as competitive destination of Barcelona.
Competitors objective, strategy, and weakens-
Basis Rome London
Objectives The main objective of this
destination is to improve
tourist attraction places and
to enhance their
environmental stability.
The major objective of
London is to provide
employment opportunities in
bulk to enhance tourists
experiences. Second
objective of this destination
is to increase its share in
bound tourism market.
Strategies The tactic of this destination
in context of tourism
development is to spent
money in hotel and other
tourist services to make it
The main strategy is
increasing distribution
through travel trade.

better than its rival
destinations.
Weaknesses Political instability is the
main weakness of this city,
which develop challenges in
regard to sustainable
tourism management.
High pollution is one of
those weaknesses that
London had.
Competitors react To improve tourist locations,
it takes initiative to improve
heritages.
London reacts to compete
for longer by taking
initiatives to develop
sustainable tourism plan.
Rome and London are the main competitor of Barcelona because they have key
aspects like nature, amazing tourist places, historic locations and most attractive
tourism places that help to gain the attention of travellers. By referring, 4As model,
tourism attractiveness is the main criteria on the basis of that, above destinations are
chosen as key rival of Barcelona (Jia and Chaozhi, 2021).
Market structure-
Target market segments-
The market segments in context of London is mostly small families in which three
to five people are included.
In the regard to Rome, empty nester are its target customers, which made
destination to be more popular.
Where are the visitors from-
In Rome, international and domestic visitors visit the most who came from
different nations like USA, UK, etc.
In London, visitors came from India, USA and Asian countries.
Duration of stay-
Most of the tourists stay in Rome and London hardly 1 week or more than
according to their planning.

Purpose of visit-
The main purpose of visitors in context of visiting both destinations is leisure.
They want to spend some time away from busy schedule.
Customer trends, how they are changing and their impact on tourism destination-
In recent time, majority of consumers prefer to connect with nature which is one
of those trends that visitors adopt. Another trends that travellers adopt is usage of smart
phones and applications to find out the best location at destinations. These trends are
changing, due to technological advancement and fluctuations in context of needs and
expectations of travellers.
These may put negative impact on Barcelona in term of increasing comparative
activities of each visitor to compare two or more destinations, where they may prefer to
visit.
Identifying destination competitiveness and market structure
Offering of competing destinations have offer to visitors-
By applying Destination Amalgam model, it has been identified that Rome and
London as competing destinations have offered visitors the best tourist services in term
of accommodation, Food & Beverage and fun activities. Furthermore, it also provides
health care and banking as well. But dud to weaknesses they may lack to take initiative
and success in sustainable tourism management.
Barcelona can offer visitors by apply 4 As framework-
Availability-
The chosen destination can offer better services and facilities to visitors as
compare to above two competitive destinations. For example, they can take initiative to
arrange cultural activities and events in hotels and other places where visitors prefer to
stay.
Affordability-
In Barcelona, tourism and other sectors that are related to tourist services and
products offerings can contribute to make travel process easier in term of providing
transportation services to each visitor.
Awareness-

With the help of social media platforms and other digital marketing channels,
sectors may take initiative to promote the best accommodation and tourist services and
products in the whole world which are available in Barcelona.
Acceptability-
Hospitality and tourism industries can encourage tourists to take part in cultural
activities and accept the products or services which are quite beneficial for them (Al-
Gasawneh and Al-Adamat, 2020).
Competitive advantages in context of Barcelona-
Comparative basis Barcelona London
Availability It had 58 hospitality, which
is quite less than its main
competitor and that is
London.
In London, 298 hospitals
are available.
Affordability The accommodation
services in Barcelona as
compare to London is quite
cheaper.
High cost of
accommodation charges
may impact negatively upon
visitors decisions.
Awareness In context of generating
awareness about existing
tourism products or
services, Barcelona has
been utilized promotional
campaigns for marketing via
YouTube. Television and
social media.
In London, radio,
magazines, newspaper and
other traditional as well as
latest marketing sources are
used to generate the
awareness about services
and items that visitors prefer
to buy.
Acceptability Number of places or
locations are available in
Barcelona that may
provides excellent
satisfaction to each visitor.
London has many tourist
attractions as compare to
Barcelona.

Its beaches and sunny
lifestyle made it attractive.
Barcelona is attractive on the basis of beautiful beaches and sunny life style,
which gain the attention of majority of visitors.
Examining destination environment-
Political factor-
Political instability is one of those political factors that may put negative impact on
tourism strategy and process of decision-making. It posses the biggest threat for
tourism and sustainable tourism management practices in Barcelona.
Economic factor-
Due to COVID-19, unemployment rate in many nations or cities like Barcelona
may decreased, which affect tourism strategy and its implementation in positive
manner. For example, it may give chance to hire talented and experienced people from
talent pool which is quite beneficial for tourism development in chosen city. This factor
may arise as an key opportunity.
Social factor-
Fluctuation in context of needs and expectations of visitors may bring varied
challenges for tourism sector in Barcelona it may impact current sustainable tourism
management practices. Changes in market trends posses threat. It has impacted upon
destination in negative manner, for example due to pandemic in recent time instead of
buying tickets people prefer to buy e ticket as it is in trend now.
Technological factor-
Technology advancement is give opportunity to sector to promote their available
resources, services and products in the world and allow reaching at global level where
many visitors are seeking to visit the best destination.
Legal factor-
Fluctuation in laws and policies related to sustainable tourism development and
management may impact negatively upon Barcelona and posses as another threat,
which may affect profitability of tourism sector and its productivity in negative manner.
Environmental factor-

By reducing carbon foot print, tourism sector in Barcelona may grow even better
than the other industries, it gave new growth opportunity to industry in chosen
destination.
Chosen destination may responds negative impact of above factors by
developing effective actions. It faces many challenges such as generating awareness
about safety related to pandemic.
Evaluating dimensions of Barcelona competitiveness-
Information about varied things that are-
Tourist services-
In Barcelona, airports, local city guides, bus, cabs, restaurants, cafes, scooters
and flats as a tourist service are available which may included in category of dimensions
that this destination had (Cocola-Gant and Lopez-Gay, 2020). It made it able to
compete for longer against rivals.
Cultural events-
Varied types of cultural activities are conducting in Barcelona as cultural events,
for example visitor may see people are dancing in a group as sardana which covers
under traditions of this destination (Barcelona festivals and events: the best of the year,
2020). Sonar electronica music festival attracts more than 10,000 individual person
each year at destination.
Quality and variety of shops-
In Barcelona, quality of products are accessible which visitors may buy. For
example, here, Zara products are available. Furthermore, other shops related to apparel
are also accessible, which provide quality goods.
Accommodation-
The accommodation services are quite good but limited in Barcelona, which may
affect its attractiveness and competitiveness.
Price levels-
The price extent in Barcelona is cheaper, the breakfast budget is €6 and lunch
budget is €3-13. As compare to other destinations, hotel prices in chosen destination is
less expensive.
Safety and security-

Barcelona is safe and secure destination for visitors because crime at this
location follows jet lagged.
Environment-
it is one of the most environmental friendly city in the world. It has high score for
air quality and also has essential atmospheric pollution control network.
Nature-
In Barcelona, days are sunny and beaches looks more attractive that attract
visitors towards visit.
Lock downs and government restrictions related to COVID-19-
Government gives directions to local people as pandemic guidelines. They
announce shop opening and closing time as well as travel on street between 10 am to 6
pm. Metropolitan areas in this destination are working together with Catalan federal to
contain outbreaks. People may goes out only on emergency basis.
Appraising destination competitiveness and performance-
It can be said that Barcelona may take major initiatives to be a competitor and
perform really very well. For example, it may use current competitiveness for achieving
aim, objectives and vision that are stated above.
It includes mountains, beautiful senary seas, wonderful weather and climate and
heritages. It made this destination able to gain the attention of more visitors, which in
return contribute to increase GDP and profitability of tourism sector even better than last
few years.
Furthermore, from above analysis and discussion, it has been determined that
Barcelona has performed quite impressively as it diversify and expand promotion of
tourist attractions and items which meet sustainability criteria and also take initiative to
assure a social return and support to local recreation mobility. It performs appreciably in
term of addressing external and internal mobility to manage the flow in context of
tourism. All these activities and practices, drive destination towards achieving set goals
and objective and made it capable to fulfil vision.
CONCLUSION
From above analysis it has been concluded that by taking appropriate actions
and initiatives, management has overcome the negative impact of pandemic. Tourism

and hospitality sector has considered the needs and expectations of customers, which
has made them able to boost the ratios of visitors visit in chosen destination.
Furthermore, by summing up above discussion, it has been summarized that by
following suitable and relevant suggestions, it is quite easy for destination to overcome
the impacts of COVID-19. It has increased more GDP by hiring local people who are
well aware about market trends and work hard to increase the profitability of tourism
sector.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Just like other nations or cities, Barcelona may also take initiatives to recover
from negative impact of pandemic, which affect the entire growth of economy and
mostly impact tourism sector. The chosen destination should plan to overcome negative
impacts by considering following suggestions-
 The tourism sector within Barcelona can take action in context of overcoming
negative impact of COVID-19. For example, it can train their tourist guiders to
made them able about guiding visitors to follow the instructions given by the
health care ministry in term of wearing mask and using sanitizer after and before
touching any area where they may visit.
 Another suggestions, which may help Barcelona to recover negative affects of
pandemic is offering employment to local people. Due to pandemic, many people
have losses their job, which directly affecting their standards of living. When
tourism and hospitality sectors in Barcelona can offer job opportunities it can
contribute to overcome pandemic negative impact on job market.
 Just because of this initiative, industries effective help local people to live better
life and manage their living standard even better than current era.
 In recent time, still after facing varied issues related to health, visitors are not
following the guideline in context of pandemic and because of this reason,
authority can take action to penalize each person whether it is citizen or traveller
when they do not wear a mask which is mandatory. It helps to spread infection
from one person to another. This suggestion is implemented in term of pasting
notice on high streets and promoting it via using the most influencing and quick
marketing tools such as social media, billboards, etc.

 Pandemic is spread due to touching and lack of social distancing. Barcelona can
take action to use e-ticketing system, which made a social distance between
ticket provide and traveller which they purchase to enjoy specific fun activity like
water ride, etc.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Al-Gasawneh, J.A. and Al-Adamat, A.M., 2020. The relationship between perceived
destination image, social media interaction and travel intentions relating to
Neom city. Academy of Strategic Management Journal. 19(2). pp.1-12.
Cocola-Gant, A. and Lopez-Gay, A., 2020. Transnational gentrification, tourism and the
formation of ‘foreign only’enclaves in Barcelona. Urban studies. 57(15).
pp.3025-3043.
Fraiz, J.A., de Carlos, P. and Araújo, N., 2020. Disclosing homogeneity within
heterogeneity: A segmentation of Spanish active tourism based on
motivational pull factors. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 30,
p.100294.
Gössling, S., Scott, D. and Hall, C.M., 2020. Pandemics, tourism and global change: a
rapid assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 29(1). pp.1-
20.
Jia, X. and Chaozhi, Z., 2021. Turning impediment into attraction: A supplier
perspective on Halal food in non-Islamic destinations. Journal of Destination
Marketing & Management. 19. p.100517.
Kim, K. and et.al., 2020, November. Philosophy of FIRST®. In 2020 International
Automatic Control Conference (CACS) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
Son, J.Y. and et.al., 2020. Reductions in mortality resulting from reduced air pollution
levels due to COVID-19 mitigation measures. Science of The Total
Environment. 744. p.141012.
Online
Barcelona festivals and events: the best of the year. 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
Through: <https://www.timeout.com/barcelona/things-to-do/big-festivals-and-
major-events-in-barcelona>
Best Fun Things To Do in Rome, Italy. 2021. [ONLINE]. Available Through:
<https://one-week-in.com/32-fun-things-to-do-in-rome/>
New consumer trends in Tourism. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available Through:
<https://www.amara-marketing.com/travel-blog/new-consumer-trends-in-
tourism>

Bibliography
https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/barcelona-e-cat-bar.htm
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10941665.2019.1687535