The beaches of Barcelona and several areas of Catalonia resurfaced this weekend thanks to the high temperatures and images more typical of midsummer than of the autumn that has just begun were seen. As the photograph accompanying this article demonstrates, Bogatell beach was especially busy yesterday with a multitude of bathers who wanted to take a last dip. Despite these images, the City Council closed the season on September 25 and the balance indicates that it has been a record year, the largest in the last two decades.
Since April 1, 5.2 million people have passed through the city's beaches, exceeding last year's users by just over 200,000. August has been the month in which there have been the most visits, more than 1.57 million, compared to 989,000 last year. On the other hand, the busiest month of 2022 was July when 1.53 million bathers were registered.
As is usually the case, and this year has been no different, the most visited beaches were those in Barceloneta and surrounding areas (Sant Sebastià, Sant Miquel, Barceloneta and Somorrostro), which grew by 14% in terms of users, while those in Levante fell 7%. Even so, the beach with the most users was Bogatell. The data indicates that there were two beaches, the Levante beach and the Barceloneta beach, that occasionally exceeded the maximum user capacity, but “without any risk situation occurring and it was for a short time,” the City Council points out.
By increasing the influx on the beaches, healthcare assistance has also grown by 15% – going from 5,506 the previous year to 6,455 this year – and evacuations to the hospital by 13%, from 233 last summer to 267 this 2023 On the other hand, despite the greater influx, water rescues decreased by 4%, going from 103 last year to 99 in 2023.
