Barcelona's Firing of Its Tourism Chief Reinforces Why Engaging Local Communities Matters
Photo Credit: The National Day of Catalonia celebration on the streets of Barcelona. Unsplash / Eder Pozo Pérez
Skift Take
Barcelona remains one of the clash points between the tourism sector and locals. Its next tourism chief will need to be a master at community relations.
Barcelona fired its top tourism official, Marian Muro, on September 20, less than two years after the tourism industry veteran was hired as chief executive of the Turisme de Barcelona Consortium with much promise for a city that has been plagued by overtourism. One of the reasons may have been her weak relationship with the city's community stakeholder body. Barcelona Tourism is responsible for the city’s promotion as a destination.
The dismissal underscores the ongoing fragility of relationships between the tourism industry and local communities, as Skift addressed in a 2022 megatrend “Communities Are No Longer Spectators in Travel.”
Muro served as the consortium's general director amid the pandemic and oversaw the destination’s recovery. She was appointed as director by the consortium's general council on February 27, 2020, days before th
