By Pako Rodríguez, tourism consultant (Original publication in Spanish).

Sant Andreu is a district of the city of Barcelona with almost 150,000 inhabitants. Its agricultural origins, its marked industrial evolution and its strong commercial tradition mean that transformation is part of its DNA. It is a district where the new and the old coexist through its streets and squares, its shops, spaces and culture. Its inhabitants, with a vindictive character, are a reflection of a working-class past that faces a future that will undoubtedly be marked by the arrival of the high-speed train to the district through the Sagrera station.

This station, when it is finally completed, will bring with it urban changes that will produce a before and after in almost the entire district and, in a very profound way, in several of its neighbourhoods. The arrival of passengers at a station designed to receive up to 100 million each year will be a great challenge in terms of its management and an even greater opportunity for the generation of employment, the development of commerce, new housing, including social housing, and the expansion of green areas.

This urban development will join other existing attractions in the district, such as the artistic, socio-cultural and local folklore assets brought together in the Recinte Fabra i Coats, the urban art and the self-managed project of the Nau Bostik, the musical culture through the Taller de Músics or the gastronomic and commercial offer of the area, among others.

Economic regeneration through regenerative tourism

It is in this context that Ideas for Change, with the support of Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Activa through the Impulsem el que Fas call for proposals, has launched the Barris que Molen project.

The purpose of this project is to promote the economic regeneration of the district of Sant Andreu through the promotion of participatory tourism with an impact on local economic development. To anticipate in a participatory way what is to come with this future development in La Sagrera, to take advantage of the opportunities that the visitor economy presents and to face the challenges it produces in a joint and coordinated way.

The project seeks to identify all the actors who want to get involved, provide and extract knowledge through participatory dynamics and ensure the development of new initiatives and circuits of responsible and regenerative tourism that allow the relocation of the tourist ‘surplus’ of other central areas of the city of Barcelona.

A model based on participation and respect for the local community

To this end, and in line with trends towards responsible and quality tourism, the project will be developed with regenerative tourism as the basis and starting point. A regenerative design focused on active participation, continuous feedback and iteration for the promotion of a model based on principles that can be summarised as follows:

• The definition of a destination purpose that realistically reflects what the destination wants to offer and what local impact is sought.

• Involving the host community, with their concerns and knowledge, in the design of the destination.

• Respect for the local community and the continuous search for positive impact through intelligent and interconnected design at different levels of the environment.

• The participation of the host community in tourism activity and the promotion of interactions with visitors to offer a more human experience.

• The enhancement of natural resources that allow for unique experiences.

• The promotion of sustainable design focused on the triple impact (social, economic and environmental).

• The commitment to continuous multidirectional and multichannel communication with transparent rules that are accessible to all.

• The permanent beta of the destination based on continuous learning and updating.

All of the above aspects should make it possible to avoid falling into past mistakes and to achieve the following:

• Evolve from quantitative and short-term tourism to qualitative and long-term tourism.

• Promote coexistence tourism that takes the resident into account, as the city is not a resort.

• Generate a pattern of value and quality associated with science, art and culture. Promote the key relationship between culture and tourism.

• Encourage environmental and social respect through a code of ethics.

• Promote the 4D's of sustainable tourism:

• Decentralisation of tourism flows.

• Distribution of benefits to host communities.

• De-standardisation of the offer to capture a demand that seeks authenticity.

• De-seasonalisation of the destination to avoid concentrations of visits over time.

A high quality programme led by regenerative tourism practitioners

The project is led by professionals who are experts in regenerative tourism and is based on widely proven innovative methodologies. Thus, over the next few months, the programme will be developed through the following phases:

Phase 0: Mobilisation of local organisations and agents from different sectors that can directly or indirectly influence the generation of an attractive fabric for visitors.

Phase 1: Training on regenerative tourism and good practices related to local economic development for people, entities, neighbourhood organisations and interested companies in the district.

Phase 2: Participatory workshop in which, through our Penta - CARE methodology, we will analyse the destination, find the resources that make it unique, understand who is the visitor we want to address and how to do it, and where projects will come from that will have a direct impact on the tourist development of the district in a responsible and regenerative way.

Phase 3: Monitoring by the Ideas for Change team of 3 projects for 2 months for their promotion, validation and development.

Final phase: Presentation of these 3 projects, with the data from the weeks of monitoring by the Ideas for Change team.

A participatory project focused on local agents.

The target groups of this project are associations of traders and cooperatives, neighbourhood associations, the hotel and catering industry, organisations from the cultural sector and, in general, citizens interested in co-creating their destination.

It is a participatory project and its success depends on the degree of involvement of all local agents, so we encourage you to take part in it.

At Ideas for Change we have launched Destinos que molan, a line focused on helping territories that want to become tourist destinations and destinations that want to transform themselves, leaving behind previous and obsolete schemes.

Let's talk if you want to be part of the new reality of tourism.