Catalan language use in Barcelona’s hospitality sector is receiving a major boost from a new industry-led initiative.
The Barcelona Restaurant Guild, in partnership with the ERC party, has launched a three-pronged campaign to increase the presence of Catalan in the city’s bars and restaurants.
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This move comes directly in response to concerning data from a recent Barcelona City Council survey.
The 2024 survey revealed that nearly half of all hospitality workers in the city do not speak Catalan at their establishments. Furthermore, one in four waiters and bar staff do not even understand the language. Consequently, the guild is taking immediate action to reverse this trend.
Catalan Language Initiative Offers Practical Support
The campaign’s first measure involves distributing a comprehensive guide to all 9,000 member establishments. This guide clearly outlines existing linguistic regulations, which mandate that customers must be able to express themselves and be served in Catalan. Additionally, it details the resources available to help businesses comply.
Secondly, and perhaps most significantly, the guild is offering a free translation service for all business communications. This includes signage, menus, bills, allergy information, and websites. The service aims to help restaurants meet the requirements of the Consumer Code. The guide itself, titled ‘El català, ben servit’, is available in Catalan, Spanish, English, Chinese, and Urdu.
Finally, ERC is making its local party offices available for practical Catalan language classes tailored to hospitality workers. A pilot scheme is scheduled to begin in the Eixample district in early 2026, developed in collaboration with language advocacy groups Plataforma per la Llengua and Òmnium.
“Faced with a linguistic emergency, we are taking the initiative and doing something we believe the City Council should be doing, because Catalan cannot wait in the country’s capital,” said Elisenda Alamany, president of the ERC municipal group in Barcelona. The initiative’s funding currently comes exclusively from the Restaurant Guild itself.
This local effort supplements existing national frameworks, such as courses from the Consortium for Linguistic Normalisation. The campaign also highlights a broader demographic shift, as Barcelona’s foreign-born population has hit a record 35.4%, which can impact language skills in the retail and hospitality workforce.
“We want to promote what is normal, which is the use of Catalan in the city’s bars and restaurants,” stated Roger Pallarols, Director General of the Barcelona Restaurant Guild. “The data is not positive, but there is commitment from our business community, and we hope other economic sectors will join.” He described the guide as a tool to “accompany” businesses and “facilitate” having Catalan on the table, calling it a commitment to the language, regulations, real integration, and quality trades.
Henk Cortier, the Belgian owner of the Sant Antoni brewery Lambicus, supported the initiative. He learned Catalan upon arriving in 2000 and uses it as the main language in his establishment. “It’s not easy to find staff,” he admitted. “But with a little effort, if you speak Spanish it’s easy to learn Catalan. I don’t ask waiters to have philosophical conversations, but to be able to explain our product to customers.” He noted that people appreciate the effort to speak Catalan, often encountering locals who switch to Spanish when they see a waiter is from abroad.
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