Introducing Barcelona Tourism - Impact of 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona City - Case Study Example

Barcelona xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Being a Mediterranean city, Barcelona is the heart of political, cultural, social and industrialization movements of current Spain. Before the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the economy of the city was in a stage of difficulty as a result of transfer of industry from the city, economic crises, decreased political activities and stagnation of the city population. However, with the hoisting of the Olympic Games in the city there were major economic boost noted. The Olympic Games introduced a significant urban transformation which included an increase in new road projects by 15 per cent, increase in the sewerage system by 17 per cent and beaches and green zone which increased by 78 per cent. In addition the sports infrastructures were also improved (García 2004). Indeed, this is not a surprise given the fact that most significant reason as to why most cities bid to host a mega sport events is the positive impacts that such sports have on the local economy which results to an improved social status of the community that has hosted. The economic impacts of such the mega sports events is defined as the total or net economic change in the host city that that results from spending in relation the mega event. It is important to note that income from the event does not come from sales of tickets, sponsorship or live broadcast as this covers the cost of covering the Olympic Games. However, most of the income and economic impact as a result of advertising the city as a tourism destination and a potential commercial and investment center. As such, it attracts more visitors and potential investors, therefore, creating chances for creation of jobs and industry contributing to the growth of the city. Impact of 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona City The full economic impact of the Olympic Games in Barcelona may be spread over a give time and may be broadly be divided into three significant phases; the pre-games impact which occurred when the city decided to bid for the Olympic Games and this became clearer when the city was awarded the Games. The economic impact on this stage mainly relates to the preparatory activities and investment that took place prior to the Games. At this phase, tourism also started picking up as a result of high profile of the city. The games impact is the second phase and it is basically associated with events that surround the Games. The post games impact is the final phase of economic impact of the Olympic Games. This is the longest phase of the three and is mostly referred to as the Olympic legacy and its impact on the economy may last for more than a decade (García 2004). In all the three phases, tourism is the major activity that is said to have a major impact on the economy as a result of the Games. This is attributed to the fact that the Games offer a unique event that attracts visitors from all over the world. The visitors may be directly be linked to the Games such as athletes, team officials and coaches, the media, spectators and sponsors. Indeed, Barcelona is no exception to the above observations. The media exposure played a major role in ensuring that the visitors had vast idea of the happening in Barcelona and the potential tourists’ destination. Indeed, there was various promotions Barcelona’s attraction areas leading to higher number of visitors in the city and this has been sustained even after the event. Apart from visiting various attraction sites in the city, tourist added benefits to the city as they spent money of accommodation, food, transport and tickets for the games. For instance, there was an increase in hotels and bed capacity in major hotels. Before the events there were about 117 hotels in the city providing approximately 10,000 rooms and about 18,000 beds. During the Games’ preparation and the event phase, there was a tremendous increase of hotels to 149 by late 1992. It is obvious that this rise represent a 34 per cent increase in the number of beds and 80 per cent rise of room occupation during the same period. This is a clear indication that more hotels were constructed creating job opportunities and therefore improving the economy (Roche 2000). Apart from the tourism impact, the events also resulted to supply side effects which are well referred to as the legacy effects. For instance, before the Games, the city had to improve various infrastructures such as transport in order to facilitate the movement of people and visitors who were expected to attend the events. Improvement of these infrastructure even after the event, have a potential effect on the economy. In addition, improvements of some sport facilities owe this to the event. It is obvious that the mega events resulted to modern sport facilities that at the moment assist the city to hold other international and national events which indeed, bring in financial benefits to the city, therefore, leading to the growth of the economy in Barcelona (García 2004). It is well noted that the improvement of infrastructure in Barcelona as a result of the mega events, changed the potential and configuration of the city. This is attributed to the fact that before the events, the city had a poor urban planning that later significantly changed. For instance, streets and districts were clearly defined in order to promote specializing in urban spacing (Preuss 2004). As a result of the Olympic Games, there was tremendous growth in housing sector in the city. This is as a result of increase in attraction in the city, increase in the cost of construction, lack of land to build in Barcelona and a rise in the family income. Notably, there was a great revival if real estate market in the first phase of Games impact on the city. As noted earlier, the preparation of the events led to an increase in employment which had previously declined between 1986 and 1992 as a result of economic crises. According to statistic the number of unemployment fell from about 128,000 people in the late1986 to about 60,000 in 1992. The number is said to have declined during the flow of the event. Apart from the economic impact that the event had in Barcelona, one may argue that it indeed plant great desire for sport in the city. This is attributed to the fact that there has been an increase in sport participation in the city. This is an indirect impact to the economy given that participation in sports contributes to the quality of life in the community and this is important in the participation of regional building activities. Apart from the sense of well being of an individual or community, it results to fun, self fulfillment and personal achievement. As such, Barcelona is said to have experiences an increase in participation of various social sectors after hosting the Olympic Games. Notably, there is an increase in both men and women in the participation of sports and the most important thing is that they have already modernized facilities and equipment which were used during the event. One may argue that the increase in the number of sports participation is a result of the civic pride that came along with the Games, as it offered a great platform where people would interact and share ideas and information which would be of great benefit to the city or even the nation at large. Essentially, the aforementioned effects of Olympic Games in Barcelona resulted to a decrease in the economic crises and a revival of activities that would result to the growth of the city. Turisme de Barcelona Turisme de Barcelona is one of the arms in the tourism industry established in Barcelona in 1993. It was established with three main objectives; to combine the existing tourism, capitalize the commercial offer in the city and attract novel tourism in the city. This body has set sights on various horizons that include; boosting the financial impact of the tourism and attract tourist linked with high power in spending; promote Barcelona as a tourist attraction; reconcile the community to tourist; ensure that there is a multi-sectional and geographical distribution of tourism in the city and promote the private and public promotional models. It is important to note that the Turisme de Barcelona carries out communication, promotional and marketing campaigns in the international markets targeting various segments that fall in the sphere of interest such as holidays, cruises, conventions and cultural activities. It also has a role in providing the tourist sector in Barcelona a chance to carry out and participate in promotion through the providence of services and products at the international markets. In addition, Turisme de Barcelona markets a broad range of products that are made available through its offices or tour operators. Turisme de Barcelona has a role to forge various collaborative partnership with countries especially those in Europe. Under this, it has played a role in establishing and developing of various associations under the European bodies that are linked with promotion of tourism. Despite the fact that the bodies have more than 100 members, Turisme de Barcelona is said to continue playing a major role as expected. In addition, apart from the European bodies linked to tourism, Turisme de Barcelona has continued to play a major role in creating collaboration with other groups such as Global Sustainable Tourism Council and World Tourism Cited Federation that promote tourism among member states. Under the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Turisme de Barcelona has several roles that include creating sustainable management, maximizing the social and economic benefits for the communities while minimizing the negative impact of tourism, maximizing the major benefits fir cultural heritage while avoiding the negative effects of the same. Turisme de Barcelona is also responsible for promoting Catalan capital as one of the tourist destinations. There are various ways in which the Turisme de Barcelona presents Barcelona as a tourist destination through various ways such as promotion. In one of the promotions, Turisme de Barcelona has planned a city promotion with other European countries that have distant markets. In order to carry out such promotions effectively, Turisme de Barcelona has created a promotional body under it that will the success of the promotion. Barcelona Premium, the new program, is solely responsible for targeting high spending power from the international community. In addition, the new program is expected to work along with MetroWalks which was launched to explore seven new brands tourist routes in different region of Catalan capital. This new services will market the Barcelona guide together with public transport tickets that are followed using the various transport network in the city. These services will be available at various tourist center in city and it includes itinerary outline with pictures, rough timescales for every point of interest and directions to these places. It is important to note that such promotion target various market in countries such the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany and France (www.barcelonaturisme.cat). Another way that Turisme de Barcelona is promoting Barcelona as destination is through the holding of various conferences that are related to tourism. For instance, Turisme de Barcelona held a Travel Agent convection that was aimed at marketing the destination to various interested travel agents who would then play a role in creating websites and other ways to expose Barcelona as a popular tourist attraction city. Notably, the promotion activities are also part of the strategic lines that Tursime de Barcelona is using in order to increase high power tourist in the region. For instance it has laid strategies to carry out promotional strategies in North America market. This will be carried out through various activities and events. The initiatives aim at targeting the tourism and vacation sectors in the aforementioned markets including Russia. As such, Turisme de Barcelona as created a promotional calendar that reflects its promotion strategies. Indeed, these activities are aimed at strengthening Barcelona as a potential tourist destination in various loyal markets as well as in other potential markets. To supplement its role in selling Barcelona as a tourist destination, Turisme de Barcelona will strengthen its commercial activities through the production of splendid edited catalogue that will offer various features within the city. However, the catalogue is expected to be made available to other potential markets worldwide. Of most important to note is the fact that Turisme de Barcelona is still working on subsectors that will supplement its activities of promoting the region as a tourist destination. However, the rising of such subsectors is said to lie on the strengths and demand of the city. Turisme de Barcelona is also promoting culture in the city as one of the potential ways of increasing tourist in the region. It is with no doubt that Barcelona is a great cultured region and this culture has continued to be maintained for a long time. In addition to the culture, there are various festive traditions that are held round the year. These festive has become one of the important venues where Tursme de Barcelona promotes and sell to visitor their services and products that are available in the capital (www.barcelonaturisme.cat) Other strategic plans include organizing outstanding events such as Barcelona Sports program that is mainly geared to attract people interested in sports in the country. It is important to note that such as programs are meant to attract local tourist to some to extent visitors are also part of the program. Notably, the program has taken advantage of Barcelona being known as a center of tourist destination to organize such events, however, on the other hand, Turisme de Barcelona has considered such programs and events as one way of strategically laying its role in the tourism sector in the city. As such, the program is at the moment focusing in international sporting that are in their calendar. In order for Turisme de Barcelona to be effective in its role of attracting high powered tourist in the city, it is important for it to lay excellent strategies in communication. One of the ways that Turisme de Barcelona is communicating with potential tourist is by making its services and product available online. Indeed, this is one of the new moves in advertising given the fact thea most people are now shopping gods and services on the website. It is therefore, important that Turisme de Barcelona creates attractive website that will not only attract more clients but in addiction, ensure that more tourists have visited the city. The website also covers varios travel packages such as hotels found in Catalan capital in order to give a potential tourist a detailed guideline on what is expected during their stay in the capital. Turisme de Barcelona publishes sales guide annually which are expected to target potential tourists from all over the worldwide. Indeed, this tool play a major communication role in ensuring that basic information on tourist attraction sites and events have been captured in the guide and therefore, help in organizing a stay in the capital. Of most important is the fact that the guide is geared to take of the basic needs of visitors and the varying needs. It has also made the guide available on a digital edition. Event management As a business venture, Espanyole ensure that their event management is excellent due to the high competition from various other clubs in the city. It specializes in event management, production and concepts. The club organizes events by creating a team that is mandated with overseeing the basic requirements are made available and carried as per expectation of every event. This is attributed to the fact that all events are unique and that they have different needs which need to be catered for effectively. The team assists in outsourcing the needs for the event such as transport, staffing, accommodation, technical service, equipment, and catering. Its approach is in this part of this business is done through offering an international and open minded team that is backed by a strong management and ground network in order to ensyure that the event is able to stand out from the rest. In case of a hire by any client, the club first understand the goals of the clients, one of the initial steps in offering the best quality, and giving attention to the outstanding particulars that are expected too be carried out. Of major importance to note is the fact that event management is one of the integral part of business of Espanyole. This is because it is one of the platforms that the club is able to maintain a competitive advantage in the industry. As such, it is able to compete effectively resulting to high profits margins. the club hoist various event that include clinics for various companies, launching of new products and services, awards, film festivals, private events and commercial events. In order for the club to remain competitive in the market, it should continue to personalize their services to the clients as this will ensure that the clients’ expectation and requirement are met with high professionalism. In addition, while delivering their services, there is a need for the management to consider different culture practices that has continued to be experienced in major events. It is also important that the club works along the local authority in order to avoid unwanted conflicts that are associated with legal issues. Finally working together with other private organizers in different region will assist the club in adopting new skill and trends in the market place which will ensure that the club continues to maintain is competitive advantage in the industry (Kitchin & Ferdinald 2012). References García, B 2004, Urban regeneration, arts programming and major events: Glasgow 1990,Sydney 2000 and Barcelona 2004. International Journal of Cultural Policy 10, pp. 103 –118 Kitchin, P & Ferdinald, N 2012, Event management; an international approach. Lodon: Wiley Preuss, H 2004, The economics of staging the Olympics: a comparison of the Games, 1972–2008 Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Roche, M 2000,Mega-events and modernity: Olympics and expos in the growth of global culture. London: Routledge. www.barcelonaturisme.cat Read More