At the end of November and the beginning of December, all the counties of the province of Barcelona, as well as the capital itself, hold their Sustainability Roundtables, a key participatory space within the Destination Barcelona Commitment to Sustainable Tourism programme. These annual meetings allow the work carried out by participating companies and organisations to be validated, while also defining new lines of action to continue progressing towards a more responsible and balanced tourism model.
The Destination Barcelona Commitment to Sustainable Tourism is a programme aimed at companies, services, and public entities seeking to improve their management of sustainable tourism from environmental, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. It is a well-established model promoted by the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Barcelona City Council, with the support of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Barcelona Tourism Consortium. It is based on a methodology developed between 2019 and 2020 and updated for the 2021–2025 period. This methodology integrates manuals of best practices aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as cross-sector training, individualised advice, and Destination Group Sessions.
A central component of the programme is the Improvement Plan, which sets mandatory annual actions for all organisations that choose to participate. Each company or entity must demonstrate at least three new sustainability actions each year to maintain its distinction, ensuring real and continuous progress.
The monitoring and validation of this continuous improvement process is carried out through the Sustainability Roundtables, working groups that meet at the end of the year in each county and in the city of Barcelona. These Roundtables are composed of representatives from the private tourism sector and public administrations in equal parts, as well as representatives from the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, and the county tourism management body.
The Roundtables aim to approve the reports of each company or service, which include an assessment of compliance with mandatory commitments, but they also serve to propose new objectives and actions that promote the overall improvement of sustainable tourism in each destination. Finally, they seek to raise awareness and communicate the programme’s progress and needs to the stakeholders involved, promoting the sharing of information and best practices throughout the sector.
Thus, through the Sustainable Tourism Roundtables, the programme consolidates a way of working that integrates the perspectives of all local actors, ensuring that companies and services meet their commitments and continue to advance towards more sustainable tourism.