Apartur warns against the ban on tourist apartments in Barcelona for its impact on the meetings industry

The general director of Apartur, Marian Muro, says that Barcelona will not be able to welcome business and congress tourism if tourist apartments are eliminated, which would put its global competitiveness at risk. In 2024 the Catalan capital will host nearly 2,000 professional events, including trade fairs, congresses, conferences and corporate meetings, with more than 734,000 attendees, 85% of them international.

“With these data in hand is more than evident that Barcelona can not afford the elimination of the tourist apartments that account for 40% of the supply of tourist accommodation in the city”, alertó the general manager of Apartur, Marian Muro, during her speech at the third edition of the Innovation Summit Business Travel & MICE (ISBTM 2025), held at the Eurostars Madrid Tower hotel.

In 2024, Barcelona has consolidated its position as one of the world's leading destinations for professional events. According to data from the Barcelona Convention Bureau, which is part of Turisme de Barcelona, the city has hosted nearly 2,000 congresses, trade fairs, conventions, conferences and corporate meetings in the last year, bringing together more than 734,000 delegates, 85% of them international.This represents an increase of 26.2% over the previous year, beating the record since 1984 and recovering pre-pandemic levels.In addition, according to the annual ranking of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the Catalan capital ranks fourth in the world in number of rotating international congresses.


“The Catalan capital is one of the world's leading business tourism destinations, thanks to its infrastructure, connectivity and international events offer. Under no circumstances should its competitiveness be put at risk and close the door to talent and to the celebration of large-scale fairs and meetings," said the speaker, interviewed by Natalia Ros, founding partner of Forum Business Travel & Events.

Muro also stressed that the MICE sector is increasingly choosing to stay in tourist apartments due to the quality-price ratio, the good location and the possibility of staying in groups and sharing common and private spaces for work.

During the celebration of trade fairs and major events in the city, such as the Mobile World Congress or the ISE, all of them of great national and international recognition, the occupancy of the tourist apartments is above 90%.

In addition, 8 out of 10 Mobile conference attendees say that in the event of the elimination of tourist housing they would have difficulty finding affordable, convenient and flexible accommodation, according to a recent survey conducted by Apartur.