About the Catalan Tourist Board
Welcome to the Catalan Tourist Board, the most important and powerful tool for promoting tourism in our land
Welcome
Tourism is a strategic sector and one of the economic driving forces of the Catalan economy and this is how it should continue to remain in the future. It currently represents 12% of GDP and almost 14% of employment in our land. We work promoting a tourism model based on the criteria of environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability, in which quality, innovation and adapting to the needs of tourists are key factors in the competitiveness of our destination.
The team of professionals from the Catalan Tourist Board conduct promotional activities and commercial actions from both our headquarters in Catalonia and the 12 tourist promotion offices that we have around the world.
We enjoy the complicity of tourist boards and the (public and private) Catalan tourist sector, helping us daily to build a stronger Catalonia brand through the work programmes of the Catalan Tourist Board.
We invite you to join our project and work together to continue making Catalonia one of the world’s most attractive tourist destinations.
The Catalan Tourist Board (CTB) was set up by the Government of Catalonia and is responsible for implementing the government’s tourism promotion policies. It replaced the Turisme de Catalunya consortium, formerly responsible for this work, in early 2010.
The Catalan Tourist Board was created as a body of the Government of Catalonia under Law 15/2007, of 5 December 2007 (in catalan), in accordance with the powers related to tourism conferred by article 171 of the Catalan Statute of Self-Government. The purpose of the CTB is to promote Catalonia as a leading tourist destination based on quality and the social and economic profitability of the tourism industry.
When the CTB took over from the consortium as the body leading initiatives to raise international awareness of the attractions that Catalonia can offer, it marked a turning point in Catalan promotional strategy. The main innovation, which is now growing stronger, was the involvement of the private sector, which now shares in the tasks and responsibility for promoting and selling tourism in Catalonia around the world.
Obtaining measurable results is one of the priority directives of the new body, which focuses its efforts on tourism resources and companies in the industry. To this end, the CTB supports commercialitzation of products and also encourages the generation of self-financing resources.
Public and private collaboration
The CTB is part of the Ministry of Business and Labour. It draws its members from the Government of Catalonia, the General Council of the Catalan Chambers of Commerce, representing the private sector, from the tourism boards of the provincial councils of Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona, and from the mixed public and private tourism board of the Catalan capital, Turisme de Barcelona.
As established in its Statutes (in catalan), modified by Decree 165/2010 (in catalan), the Management Board is responsible for approving the CTB’s programme of action. The Ministry of Business and Labour, the Chambers of Commerce Council, the promotional bodies of the provincial councils and private companies supply the board with the funds it requires for its activities.
The Catalan Tourist Board set in motion more than 1.200 strategic promotional ventures annually, some of them extremely important, such as the Catalonia Years organized in other countries and the Buy Catalonia marketing macro-workshop, initiatives that feature every year in the calendar of events and activities. This work gets published in an annual Report that gives full details of its work throughout the year. The Annual Report for 2020 can be found in this link.
To view the organisational structure of the Catalan Tourist Board, click here.
You can also check the Gender Equality Plan of the Catalan Tourist Bord 2022 here (in Catalan).
Mission, vision and values
Mission:
To contribute to the prosperity of Catalonia and its tourism sector, to be its voice abroad, attracting and meeting the needs of tourism with greater added value.
Vision:
To become the marketing leader for the Catalan tourism sector, collaborators and tourists, as well as an international benchmark.
Values:
- Innovation: this prompts us to go beyond standards and question our processes and protocols, thus providing new solutions and becoming a benchmark in the sector as a dynamic and forward-looking organisation.
- Proactivity: to be a highly competitive team we must respond responsibly with large doses of initiative.
- Positive thought: and a positive attitude. We must face difficulties by turning them into challenges and opportunities for professional growth.
- Commitment: this is an intrinsic value that makes us feel the mission of the Catalan Tourist Board as our own and act accordingly.
- Global vision: to go beyond our immediate reality, taking a global perspective of how we and our partners and collaborators can contribute to meeting the objectives of the Marketing Plan and, together, make our mission a reality.
- Empathy: this helps us to relate to each other and to understand the position of colleagues, clients and the sector, in order to be more united in action, find solutions and meet common goals.
- Responsibility: This is applicable to everyone in the Catalan Tourist Board (CTB), from directors to administrators, executives to administrative assistants, in all the activities carried out in their areas of activity. The scope of this value includes both taking responsibility and being accountable. Responsibility can be explained as the optimal way of working in an organisation while integrating the above values of proactivity and commitment. In short, it is about transparency in accountability, about “owning one’s actions”, thereby demonstrating how the CTB acts to achieve its mission: taking ownership and responsibility for decisions made in the organisation and being accountable for actions.
- Transparency: is the essential value without which accountability cannot be fostered. As indicated in the Government of Catalonia transparency portal, it is applicable to everyone working in its structure.
- Sustainability: for the CTB, the first organisation to obtain Catalonia Biosphere Responsible Tourism Destination certification, linked to the Global Reporting Initiative, the commitment to sustainability in our tourism model is established as the principal value, shared by all. This commitment was reaffirmed with the signature of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism on 19 January 2021. The organisation is committed to promoting an effective policy in this area and thus seeks to adopt the appropriate framework to help staff incorporate this principle in all actions and decision- making. The CTB is committed to promoting and encouraging an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable tourism model, but without being reductionist, considering instead the sustainable and global management of the destination under the prism of: “Best places to live, best places to visit”.