Grupo Julià

What it is and where it operates

Grupo Julià is a Spanish tourism and passenger transport group, and its website is a corporate portal for the brands it owns rather than a ticket shop. The homepage, in Spanish, describes it as one of the leading Spanish business groups specialized in global tourism and sustainable mobility services, present in more than 20 cities in 8 countries: Spain, Andorra, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Morocco and the United States. Its headline figures are more than 12 million customers, "90 años de experiencia en el Sector," more than 400 vehicles on 4 continents and more than 230 excursions and circuits.

The group calls itself "Una Corporación Global de Origen Familiar," a global corporation of family origin. It says 90 years have passed since its founders put their first passenger coach on the road, a 30-seat Chevrolet, and that commitment, quality, safety and innovation have marked the group's path since then. The homepage slider carries three slogans: international vocation, vision of the future and taking on big challenges. The site is available in Spanish, English and Catalan, and the contact details are the phone number 934 026 900 and info@julia.net.

For hop-on hop-off travelers, the relevant business is Barcelona City Tour. A June 2025 news item says the service is "operado por Grupo Julià y Moventis," so Grupo Julià is a co-operator of the Barcelona bus alongside a second company, not its sole owner.

The brands and business lines

The site divides the group into three businesses. Turismo covers trips and visits in cities such as Barcelona, Madrid and Málaga, which the site calls the simplest way to travel and discover the most attractive corners of different cities. Autobuses Turísticos covers sightseeing buses and tourist trains, which it presents as an innovative way to explore a city's landmarks. Transporte de Viajeros is the charter coach fleet for group passenger transport, which it says offers integrity, modernity and sustainability.

The footer lists the brands: City Tour Worldwide, Julia Travel, Tours & Tickets, This Is Med, City Sailing, Gray Line San Francisco, Julia Tours Argentina, Julia Tours México, Direct Bus, Autocares Julia, Autocares Nadal and Autopullman Padrós. Each brand sells its own products on its own site; the group portal does not show prices or a booking engine. The menu also has pages on the group's history, purpose and values, corporate social responsibility, ethics and compliance, jobs, and awards and accreditations.

Barcelona City Tour and the Night Tour

The news item describes City Tour Barcelona as the city's official tourist bus service ("el servicio oficial de bus turístico de la ciudad"), with 2 panoramic routes, green and orange, and hop on and hop off stops at the main points of interest. It says the fleet already includes 15 electric buses and that the service is moving toward progressive decarbonization. The article also frames the bus as a tool for spreading tourist flows across the city's heritage sites and for easing pressure on the center.

The same article, dated 13 June 2025, announced the Barcelona Night Tour. It leaves from Plaza Catalunya, lasts about 1 hour and 40 minutes on open-top double-decker buses with 360-degree views, and has a live guide speaking Catalan, Spanish and English. The route passes Plaza España and the MNAC, the Olympic Ring, Miramar, the Columbus monument, the Arc de Triomf, Torre Glòries, the Sant Pau Modernist site, the Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló and La Pedrera. In 2025 it ran Friday to Sunday in June and daily from 1 July to 14 September, departing at 21:30. The article notes that Paris and London have similar night routes. The article pitches the night route at residents as well as visitors who want to rediscover Barcelona after dark, and says the guide shares historical facts, anecdotes and curiosities along the way. It does not say whether the night tour returns in later seasons.

A separate news headline from April 2025 reports that Grupo Julià and Moventis had started running a 100% electric, zero-emission sightseeing bus in Barcelona, which it says made Barcelona the first city in Spain with a fully electric service of this kind, owned by the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. That item describes the operator as a joint venture (UTE) formed by Grup Julià and Moventis, which it calls leading sustainable mobility companies in Spain.

Other experiences in the news

The homepage news also shows the range of the group's tourism brands. A May 2025 item describes a wine and food trip from Barcelona run by Julià Travel with Familia Torres, aimed at international visitors, offered three days a week and including a vineyard and winery visit and a brunch with a wine tasting in Vilafranca del Penedès. Another item covers City Sailing by Julià, which the site calls the reference sailing experience in the Port of Barcelona, and its Ecosail catamaran, one of the largest boats in the This is Med fleet, repainted as a floating artwork by the digital artist Albert Espona.

How booking works

The group site has no booking function, prices or ticket terms. To ride the Barcelona bus or join a Julia Travel excursion, you book through the brand in question. The corporate contact line and email are the only direct channels the portal gives, apart from a press contact listed under the Night Tour article. The footer links to legal notices, a privacy policy, an ethics and whistleblowing channel, an information security policy, a list of group companies and a compliance policy.

What the site does not settle

The portal does not publish fares, departure frequency, stop lists, cancellation or refund terms, or accessibility details for the Barcelona City Tour or any other product; all of that sits with the individual brands. It does not name the other cities where it runs tourist buses, beyond mentioning Barcelona, Madrid and Málaga for its tourism business. Its staff figure is also inconsistent: the text says more than 1,400 professionals and a counter below says more than 1,200.

Grupo Julià is worth knowing about for travelers who want to understand who is behind Barcelona's official sightseeing bus, Julia Travel's excursions or Gray Line in San Francisco. For actually buying a ticket, the brand sites are where to go.