Catalonia, the place to be this summer

This sum­mer every­thing seems to be fi­nally going back to nor­mal, as can be seen by the pos­i­tive fore­casts for the tourist in­dus­try. But if there is one thing that demon­strates the re­turn to the much-de­sired nor­mal­ity, it is the pow­er­ful of­fer­ing of sum­mer fes­ti­vals and cul­tural events that turn Cat­alo­nia into a cul­tural hub in Eu­rope and pro­vide many tourists what they are look­ing for.

The sun and beach hol­i­days on which the tourism in the six­ties and sev­en­ties was based has been ob­so­lete for a few decades. Today, there are ever more pub­lic and pri­vate pro­mot­ers of­fer­ing music, per­for­mance arts fes­ti­vals, cul­tural and leisure events as well as tourist routes that ap­peal to hun­dreds of thou­sands of vis­i­tors each year. We all missed them dur­ing the pan­demic shut­down and they are much needed.

In this issue you will find a lot of these pro­pos­als in an ex­ten­sive guide to the best sum­mer fes­ti­vals around Cat­alo­nia of­fer­ing the most unique line-ups in Eu­rope (pages 14-29). You will also find a se­ries of the most at­trac­tive hol­i­day sug­ges­tions, in­clud­ing walk­ing tours, guided vis­its, itin­er­aries and ac­tiv­i­ties in ex­cep­tional nat­ural spots and cen­tres of her­itage for all those who want to spend their sum­mer hol­i­days in Cat­alo­nia (pages 30-46).

The com­mon de­nom­i­na­tor is qual­ity. Cat­alo­nia takes pride in being a top Eu­ro­pean hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion and this year, once again, it lives up to its rep­u­ta­tion. The coun­try is able to offer top cul­tural events to sat­isfy even the most de­mand­ing au­di­ences. At the same time, the Cata­lan coast, the Pyre­nees and the main cities have put great ef­forts into at­tract­ing qual­ity tourism able to value the local land­scapes, cul­ture, his­tory, ar­chi­tec­ture and gas­tron­omy. Sum­mer fes­ti­vals and cul­tural pro­gram­ming also help to re­duce the risks as­so­ci­ated with mass tourism. The pro­mo­tion of local tourism and leisure has be­come an in­dis­pens­able el­e­ment in help­ing to achieve a sus­tain­able tourism model for the fu­ture. The com­pe­ti­tion is fierce and every year the local tourist sec­tor has to fight to keep Cat­alo­nia among the con­ti­nent’s and the world’s best des­ti­na­tions.

Don’t miss the chance for fun, and please enjoy your sum­mer!