The main interested parties in tourist accommodation and municipal political groups are immersed in a participatory process to draw up the special urban plan for tourist accommodation. The new plan will aim to protect the rights of all residents and generate a balanced city where resident neighbourhood populations are not substituted by tourist accommodation.

The municipal government continues to work on the special urban plan for tourist accommodation (PEUAT), the instrument which will regulate the implementation and characteristics of tourist accommodation in Barcelona, making short term holiday lets compatible with a sustainable urban model based on guaranteeing fundamental rights and improving the quality of life of residents.

The PEUAT will seek social, environmental and economic sustainability to improve the balance between neighbourhoods and prevent tourist accommodation from substituting the main residential use of buildings. The municipal government proposal is for the new framework to shield citizen rights via various governing principles such as helping to guarantee the right to housing, conserving the right to rest and privacy, the right to sustainable mobility and the right to a healthy environment.

Specific regulations by zones

The drafting process for the PEUAT plans to set out which city zones share similar characteristics, in order to apply specific measures to them. The plan will be based on quantifying the relationship between the resident population and the transient population in various areas, defining the saturation of public space and the morphology of the urban layout.

Following this analysis, three possible scenarios are envisaged, depending on the results: establishing sustainable growth, maintaining existing tourist accommodation or moving to reduce it. An average of 6.37% has already been established relating to tourist accommodation capacity and the resident population, with 25 neighbourhoods in the city above this figure.

Tourist accommodation census

The PEUAT also includes the creation of an updated census of the city’s tourist accommodation, with data on licences granted and notifications of activity. The data will be compared to information on record at Turisme de Catalunya, the Barcelona Hotel Association, hostels authorised by the Barcelonès County Council and existing students’ residences. This will enable unlicensed establishments or those which have not notified their activity to be located, facilitating inspections against illegal activity.

The next session for the drafting of the PEUAT is on Thursday, 14 January, with another session scheduled before the end of the month. The participatory process is due to continue until the end of March, with the various parties involved all taking part, along with all municipal political groups.