By Meredith Rideout
27 million visitors a year, 16 million overnight stays a year and 7 million tourists staying in hotels per year. What popular location holds all of these rankings? That would be none other than Barcelona, Spain.
Barcelona is the 3rd top European city according to the MasterCard 2013 Global Destination Cities Index and the 5th most interesting city in the world for tourists according to Trip Advisor.
Barcelona’s popularity is partially due to its variety of activities. Barcelona offers a range of fun things to do involving culture, lifestyle, cuisine, entertainment, architecture and history.
Barcelona offers flamenco shows, tours of the Picasso museum and fresh seafood cuisine.
Tourists in Barcelona have a wide variety of profiles, origins and motivations. Some people visit the city for vacation, some for business, some for study abroad or even some for a bachelorette party. Whatever the reason for visiting, tourists everyday experience the creative, vibrant, open and inspiring city of Barcelona.
How did Barcelona become such a hot spot for tourists? Barcelona is composed of a series of distinctive traits derived from its rich history that make it unique. Barcelona has had a long and tiring journey in becoming a successful tourist town. Today, the spark of the city keeps people coming back again and again.
Historical Events
If you were to search the phrase, “History of Tourism in Barcelona” on the internet, Google would tell you that the tourism industry in Barcelona started to be promoted in March of 1906. This makes it one of the first Spanish cities to publicly organize tourism promotion.
After doing a little more digging on the internet, you would discover that the development of tourism in Barcelona actually started in 1888. At this point in history, the city of Barcelona was beginning to expand over its surrounding plains. This was when Barcelona underwent its first major urban transformation in modern times.
It all started with the Cerda Plan and the Universal Exposition. These were two key events that ushered in significant changes in the global concept of Barcelona.
The Cerda Plan was approved in 1888 and it ensured better living conditions for the people of Barcelona. The plan was a new organization for urban life, creating multi-centres and reinforcing the city’s capital status.
Thanks to the success of the Cerda Plan, Barcelona was selected to host the Universal Exposition in 1888. This event highlighted Barcelona’s architecture and industrialism. The event attracted over two million visitors during its eight months of intense activity, and it modernized the hotel and service sectors of the city.
Many participants of the Exposition were producers from various nations. According to Manuel Candela, a Barcelona local and history buff, “Most participants of the Exposition were Spanish, English, French and German, and they brought with them their most-impressive products and technologies.” Barcelona started to develop a globalized character with the influence of so many different nations.
This event also marked the day that the statue of Christopher Colombus became an iconic reference point in the new city. It was also when La Rambla was converted into the undisputed city center.
The Cerda Plan and the Universal Exposition projected the image of Barcelona as a modern, lively and advanced cosmopolitan city.
Advances and Downfalls in Tourism
The first official push for tourism in Barcelona occurred in 1906 when the Spanish Central government created the Nation Commission dedicated to the encouragement of excursions in the country. The National government hoped to take care of Spain’s national heritage while also promoting the country beyonds its borders.
Tourism slowly grew in Barcelona from the time the National Commission was put into place until the 1930s. “Tourism stopped entirely when the Spanish Civil War broke out,” Manuel Candela explained, “Many Barcelonians at the time believed that the city would never be a thriving tourist destination again.” Tourism declined in Barcelona and throughout the entirety of Spain during the Civil War and Franco’s regime.
Franco wanted Spain to disconnect with its neighboring countries in an event of extreme nationalism. During Franco's regime, the government started to make regulations on the price of lodging to restrict touristic activities.
Touristic Growth Spurt
Luckily for Spain, once Franco’s reign ended, tourism started to grow once more. Spain adopted the phrase, “Spain is Different,” in order to advertise its unique qualities to attract tourists into the country.
In Barcelona, city officials hoped to project the image of a destination with rich history. They worked to promote Barcelona’s Catholic religion, historical monuments, flamenco, bullfights and traditional cuisine. This did not spark the interest of many foreigners.
Once city officials realized that tourists were not that intrigued by Barcelona’s history, they chose the “Sun, Sand and Sea” tourism route. Barcelona was now to be known for its beaches in the Costa Brava and its bright, sunny days. Promoting Barcelona as a beach town caused a big boom in tourism. Visitors traveled from around the world to dip their toes into the cool blue Mediterranean sea and to get tan lines from the red hot Barcelona sun.
Emma Reyes, a Madrid local, and her friends drive long hours to visit Barcelona’s beaches. She said, “Our favorite place to visit is Barceloneta beach.” She explained, “There are so many options for places to swim, tan, get a drink or take a bike ride.” Emma and her friends are definitely coastal tourists, attracted to the city for its seaside huts instead of its bustling city life.
Olympic Games
The popularity of the city of Barcelona grew exponentially after Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games in 1992. Barcelona dazzled the world with its traditional Catalonian Sardana dancing in the opening ceremony, and with Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo lighting the Olympic flame by dramatically firing a lighted arrow over the heads of the crowd into the Olympic cauldron.
Tourists visiting the Olympic Games enjoyed the charm and beauty of Barcelona and visited some of its famous monuments. Many tourists visited now-popular city attractions like the Magic Fountains of Montjuic, La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. The Olympic Games showed the world that Barcelona offered more to visitors than just the sun and the sand.
These tourist attractions of Park Guell, the Magic Fountains of Montjuic and La Sagrada Familia are now more popular than the Barcelona beaches.
Manuel Candela has lived in Barcelona for over 40 years. He said, “I watched as foreigners flooded the city following the Olympic games, the roads and metros were suddenly packed with people speaking different languages.” There was an obvious structural transformation and great tourist development in Barcelona after 1992.
The number of tourists received in Barcelona grew exponentially from 1.7 million tourists in 1992 to almost 8 million by 2007. The games became a catalyst for wide scale urban renewal in the city.
Tourism Today
In the words of Emma Reyes, “Barcelona is the perfect getaway for anyone wanting a weekend in paradise.” Barcelona’s journey to popularity had many ups and downs, but the long journey was worth the reward.
Barcelona is now known for its sunny beaches, lively city life and deep historical roots. These special qualities bring in Barcelona's 27 million visitors per year and will keep the city popular for many years to come.
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