Two in three visitors in Barcelona museums are foreigners

Nearly two in three visitors in Barcelona museums are foreigners, according to a survey commissioned by the Catalan capital's culture institute (ICUB) and made by the company GESOP.

In 2023, 65.7% of the tickets acquired in box offices by individuals were bought by foreigners, while 24.9% were for Catalans and 4.2% for Spaniards outside Catalonia.

The data –which gathers information of several major museums, but not others such as the Catalan National Art Museum (MNAC), CosmoCaixa or the FC Barcelona museum – shows that out of the foreign visitors, four out of ten were Europeans, and three in ten, from the American continent (both north and south America).

US is the first country of residence (17.1% of the total non-Spaniards), followed by France (10.8%), the UK (7.3%), and Germany (6.5%).

Yet, the share of foreigners change significantly depending on the museum: 81% of those visiting the Picasso Museum were coming from outside Spain, a similar figure to the Miró Foundation (80.8%) or Montjuïc Castle (79.2%).

At the other end of the scale, the figure was 18.9% in the Pedralbes monastery and 16.8% in the city's Contemporary Culture Center (CCCB).

Out of the Catalans who got into one of the 19 museums included in the survey, almost three in four were residing in Barcelona city –but this account for just 17.8% of the total visitors.

Most tickets sold to women

The paper also shows that 53.9% of the tickets were sold to women, and 46.1%, to men – yet, two in three where female visitors in CCCB, Virreina, Ethnologic Museum (MUEC) located in Montcada street, Pedralbes monastery or Museu Blau. But in the Maritime Museum women just accounted for four out of five, and in the Montjuïc Castle, one out of five.