Regulating access to the park makes for quality visits, promotes a more sustainable tourism model and favours a balance between tourism and use by local residents
Eight out of every ten tickets are now being purchased in advance through the official website, guaranteeing smooth and orderly access Real-time information on ticket availability is also provided so that visitors can avoid unnecessary trips to the park area
Last year, the number of students who visited the park as part of the Park Güell and Schools programme doubled compared to the previous year, reaching nearly 60,000
In 2023, Park Güell welcomed 4.4 million visitors, up 6% from the previous year. The profile of the average visitor is a foreigner between the ages of 25 and 34. A quarter of visitors come to the park because they see it as a Barcelona landmark, while 22% do so out of an interest in discovering Gaudí’s architecture.
Park Güell, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, is one of Barcelona’s most visited Gaudí creations. Since 2013, Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (BSM) has been regulating access to the park on behalf of Barcelona City Council, with the goal of preserving this iconic city space and guaranteeing proper maintenance and compatibility with neighbourhood and school activities.
Initially, the regulations only applied to the Park Güell Monument Area, but in 2020 the regulated area was expanded to cover the entire park, which went from a maximum capacity of 9 million to 4.5 million visitors. These measures are still in place and aim to preserve this heritage site and promote a more sustainable, responsible and carefully planned tourism model that has less impact on the surrounding area.
In addition to regulating access, Park Güell has also carried out various initiatives and campaigns to promote advance online ticket sales, facilitating smooth and orderly access to the park. In 2023, 83% of tickets, even 95% at some points during the summer, were sold in advance.
Park Güell also provides real-time information on the availability of tickets through its channels. This avoids unnecessary trips to the park, improves the visitor experience and protects the surrounding area.
A park for all: schools and local residents, two priority groups
Managing access to Park Güell, the city’s fourth-largest park in terms of surface area, not only ensures quality visits but also promotes a balance between tourism and use by local residents. Since the regulations went into effect, the residents of the six surrounding neighbourhoods (La Salut, Vallcarca-Penitents, El Coll, Can Baró, El Baix Guinardó and El Carmel), as well as the students at the schools in the park and its surrounding area (Baldiri Reixac, Reina Elisenda Virolai, Jesuïtes de Gràcia, Turó del Cargol and Escola Montseny) use the park on a daily basis as a place for recreation, sport and community life. Local residents have exclusive entrances and also specific time slots (“Good morning, Barcelona” and “Good evening, Barcelona”), as well as a card that gives them access to the park during public opening hours.
In addition to the 4.4 million visitors, over 500,000 Barcelona residents visited the park using the local resident card in 2023, up 37% from the previous year. And 164,000 city residents, twice as many as in 2022, visited the park as part of the Gaudir Més programme.
In addition to these visits, 60,000 students from over 2,600 school groups participated in the Park Güell and Schools educational programme, which seeks to bring Gaudí’s work to students at all stages of education and is open to schools anywhere in the European Union. Most of these visits, 85%, were open ended and free of charge, while 15% were guided tours. Overall, school visits nearly doubled compared to the previous year.
For the first time, 2023 also saw Park Güell host one of the STEAM events organised by BSM and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech (UPC) with the goal of encouraging careers in science. Over 600 fifth- and sixth-year primary school students from ten different schools, including three from the neighbourhoods surrounding Park Güell, participated in the programme. During the event, they worked on their skills in maths, science, art and technology while discovering the secrets of Gaudí’s work and modernista architecture.
Meanwhile, 180 children aged 7 to 12 attended the educational Lego workshops that took place during weekends in November.
Complementing these educational programmes, the park hosted numerous cultural activities based on the heritage and historical value of Gaudí’s oeuvre, organised in collaboration with the Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA). These activities included guided tours, concerts and open-air cinema, as well as the “Sant Jordi and the Park Güell Dragon” bookmark contest for local schools, the programme with Gràcia schools and the La Salut Associations Fair. Over 9,000 people participated in these activities.
