Returning Instead of Visiting - Barcelona

You normally get this blog post in your inboxes every weekday. This week has not been more challenging or unusual than normal - but I decided to try sending this out on weekends. One of the reasons is that my visit to Barcelona this week only started on Friday. I have been on continual travels for over 3 years now - which reminds me I should be changing the header of this website - and yet there are some places that have stayed with me and motivated me to come back time & time again. The Azores is the best archipelago in the world, Thailand for its incredible culture, friendliness & proximity, and Spain for having some of the best lifestyles. Specifically Barcelona.

I wrote Why everyone should move to Spain at some point in their lives here and I will not stop advocating for it. Despite the many challenges it brings - the lifestyle is so enjoyable.

Visitor or an Ambassador?

I often say long-term travelers are the best visitors simply because they stay at a place for longer than a couple of days/weeks at best. If you travel as a remote worker, digital nomad, traveling nurse, corporate worker on an assignment—simply anyone who is looking to make a place your home for a couple of months at least—you have very different needs.

Instead of looking for the best tourist attractions, finding the places from Instagram pictures & the restaurants you found on TripAdvisor - you give your effort to find the best neighborhoods. You look at affordability & proximity. You think of where to find a group to play a game of 5-a-side football with or find your new gym, barber, local bakery, local coffeeshop or coworking space.

Basically setting up your life. Looking to find a way into your new community?

Barcelona is a great example of that.

Tourism in Barcelona

Barcelona has seen remarkable tourism growth over the years, especially since the 1992 Olympics, which transformed the city into a global destination.

The Olympics led to a massive infrastructure overhaul, which revitalized public spaces, the beachfront, and the transport network, making Barcelona highly accessible and attractive. Since then, it has become a hotspot for cruise ships, which bring millions of visitors each year, and a favored weekend getaway for Europeans.

The evolution of tourism here is staggering - from roughly 1.7 million visitors in 1990 to a peak of nearly 12 million in 2019. This exponential growth has brought both opportunities and challenges, reshaping the city's economy and urban landscape in profound ways.

I have been visiting this place as a tourist since 2015.

The usual tourist. Came here for a weekend getaway trip with my then-girlfriend, and came here for the prolonged party week with "the boys". However only earlier this year I came here for a prolonged period and "lived here"...

Barcelona for Expats & Nomads

Another layer of tourism is the expanding expat & nomad network in Barcelona. It's almost impossible to go into coffee shops in neighborhoods like Poblenou, Gracia, and Poble-sec & not hear foreign languages. Dutch, German, English, Russian. Pick your fighter. If you search "coworking" in Barcelona, tens of them pop up. I have visited some of them & most of them are crowded at any given working hour of the week.

With the growth of remote work, freelancing & microentrepreneurship the nomad lifestyle has skyrocketed. The "digital nomad" lifestyle has become more accessible, especially post-pandemic - and Barcelona has been one of the cities that has faced 10s of thousands of newcomers.

The expat and digital nomad community in Barcelona has experienced explosive growth over the past decade. The city now hosts an estimated 300,000 foreign residents, with a significant portion identifying as digital nomads or remote workers.

Do They Want To Belong?

I have loved my stay in Barcelona as a remote worker & even wrote about my favorite spots to work from in Barcelona.

Despite the backlash this city is getting & the bad PR the tourism has been given here - at Integrated Nomads - we surveyed 60+ nomads currently living in Barcelona and we came across interesting insights.

→ 86% want to learn about Barcelona's history and culture

→ 89% are open to learning Catalan to connect with locals

→ 72% already speak Spanish

Yet, only 23% actively participate in local community events.

There's a gap between desire and action. Nomads want to integrate, but they're not finding the right opportunities.

I believe being an expat or a nomad, you are not a visitor. You live your life. You have different interests and different drivers. You care about the place you are visiting as it becomes your temporary home.

You become an ambassador for life. Because the memorable experiences you have in the place will never leave you.