Catalonia has launched a year-long international marketing campaign built around its living culture, backed by about €5mn, as the region pushes to attract higher-spending, more sustainable visitors.
The campaign, “Feel Our Culture. Live Catalonia”, sits within a wider tourism strategy that shifts the region away from volume towards value and a more even geographic spread, a direction many established Mediterranean destinations are taking as they manage the pressures of mass tourism. It was presented by Catalonia’s minister of business and labour, Miquel Sàmper, at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya in Barcelona to an audience of about 400 from the cultural, tourism and business sectors, the Tourism agency said.
Rather than steering visitors only to monuments and museums, the campaign invites them to experience Catalonia through its traditions, architecture, music, festivals, gastronomy, language and spirituality, presenting a culture lived in streets and squares. It frames the region’s famous landmarks as gateways to its contemporary artists, designers and musicians.
Filmed across eleven locations, the campaign features sites including the Sagrada Família, the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Sant Pau Art Nouveau complex in Barcelona, the Roman amphitheatre of Tarragona, Girona’s old quarter, Cala Canyers on the Costa Brava and the Seu Vella in Lleida, alongside living traditions such as the castellers, the human towers that are a hallmark of Catalan identity.
The film was directed by a new generation of Catalan creators, among them filmmaker Max Larruy and the Pritzker Prize-winning practice RCR Arquitectes, with its narrative shaped by more than twenty figures from the region’s cultural sector.
Over the next twelve months the campaign will run across Catalonia, the rest of Spain and international markets in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. Culture already drives a disproportionate share of spend: in 2025, 19.2% of visitors named culture as their main reason for travelling to Catalonia, but they accounted for 30.8% of total tourism expenditure.
Why it matters for the trade
The spend gap is the number operators should note: cultural visitors made up under a fifth of arrivals but nearly a third of expenditure in 2025, which is precisely the higher-value traveller Catalonia’s “(+) Catalonia, Better Tourism” strategy is chasing. For DMCs and tour operators, the campaign signals where the destination’s marketing and, over time, its product investment will flow: living culture, contemporary creators and territorial spread beyond Barcelona.
The named focus on Lleida, the Costa Brava and Terres de l’Ebre alongside the Barcelona icons is a clear invitation to build itineraries that move clients out of the overcrowded core, which helps operators differentiate product and eases the overtourism friction that has dogged Barcelona sales. The contemporary-culture angle, artists, designers and musicians rather than only Gaudí, also gives specialist and luxury operators fresh hooks for repeat visitors who have already done the landmarks.
For the trade, this is a destination actively steering away from volume, and operators positioned in cultural, culinary and slow-travel product are best placed to benefit.