Barcelona Olympics

When Barcelona was selected to host the 1 992 Summer Olympics, the metropolis (as well as Catalonia and Especial as a whole) welcomed the incredible chance. In addition to the obvious nationalist pride and global recognition hosting the games entails, their excitement was also fueled by the potential that the opportunity represented. As the worldwide Olympic Committee explains in their Factories Legacies of the Games, recent Olympic games have resulted in long lasting legacies for their citizens, with some cities utilizing the games as a catalyst for urban renewal (International 013).This was indeed the case for Barcelona, which became al more than or less a new city entirely between 1 986 (upon first be selected) and the Opening Ceremonies. Overall, the effects of the 1 992 Barcelona Summer Olympics can be seen in three main areas the citys economy, the culture and international perception Of Barcelona abroad, and the citys urban development. Overall, ?6. 7 one thousand mil lion were spent on the games, most of which was spent on modify infrastructure. Overall, the city reaped a profit of ?7. 2 million from the games themselves (Flyleaves 2012).The long-lasting scotch effects and cagey, however, have been much more significant. For example, the Barcelona Organizing Committee invested ?2 billion in constructing and improving four main sporting venues. Today, these venues welcome most 1 people each year for various conferences, concerts, and sporting events and they stand up nearly 450 enduring jobs (International 2013). In harm of specific areas of scotch development, immediately upon their nomination, unemployment underwent a dramatic fall, the housing market boomed, and the construction industry spread out at an exponential rate.The Barcelona Olympics were also unique economically, in that Barcelona was able to hurt this economic growth for decades to come. In fact, until the recent recession that affected most of Western Europe, the city re corded growth in every economic indicator employment, investment, and new construction. Thus, non only did Barcelona benefit at the prison term from the games, it succeeded in maintaining the growth generated, on a scale never seen forward (Acid 2002).In terms of employment, Barcelona unemployment rate was cut in half from 18. 4% to 9. 6%. Not only was employment provided during the preparation and the games themselves, but nearly 20,000 permanent jobs ere created due to Olympic-related investment in infrastructure and facilities (Acid 2002). In terms of investment, ternion of the event was funded by the private sector and a third of this was with distant capital. Private investment focused predominately on the construction of housing hotels, and lineage centers.The rationale for this private investment was the expectation of improvement in the citys send of attractiveness for conducting foreign business and attracting future foreign investment. Finally, in terms Of new cons truction, the sector multiplied by nearly 3. 5 times, contempt the fact hat Barcelona building potential was already quite work (Acid 2002). One final area of economic development was in tourism. between 1986 and 2014, Barcelona hotel capacity increased threefold and the number of visitors from abroad increased by sevenfold, reaching 7. Million visitors a year. In this regard, Barcelona legacy has been more wicked and sustained than that of any other modern host city (Acid 2002). Therefore, the Barcelona Olympics have endure an economic model for present-day Olympics an exceptional performance by a city with an extraordinary and sustained opacity to ride the Olympic hustle (Taylor 2012). The reasons for this dramatic increase in tourism are a direct result of the second broad area of change experienced by Barcelona as a result of the games.Throughout the games and opening and closing ceremonies, Barcelona put on a large promotional show, highlighting the culture of Barcelona a lmost more so than the rest of Spain as a whole. As a result, the games changed the demeanor people thought of Barcelona (Taylor 2012). Between 1 990 and 2001, the city went from being the 1 lath Best City in Europe to the 6th and is now rated the twelfth most popular destination for rigorists in the world, twenty years by and by the games. More than simply presenting the culture that already existed (Steelers, flamenco, etc. , Barcelona did a combat of lying and presented a somewhat contrived culture. For example, the games were heavily sponsored by Estella pass and Don Simon, producers of beer and sangaree respectively. So, despite the fact that Barcelona is not known for its beer and that sangria is not actually popular for the locals here, the international community was presented a effloresce relationship between these twain brands and the city. Nowadays, bars in the United States squander selections of Spanish beer and Anglia, leading international tourists to equate th ese with the culture of Spain and Barcelona.Because so many tourists began to request these when they traveled to Barcelona, things have come full circle and many local bars now advertise their sangria and typical Barcelona beers. As Adam Taylor of Business Insider explains, Nowadays we think of the Spanish city as a land of palm trees, sand, and sangria but its easy to jam that forwardshand the games in 1 992, it was a much different mall (Taylor 2012). In fact, none of the palm trees in Barcelona are native to the city most of them were planted in the six ears between the announcement of Barcelona as the host city and the actual games.One final cultural development of note, the Olympics helped understand Spain into a sporting juggernaut, with world-class athletes in soccer, basketball, cycling, and tennis. Many assert this is a direct result of investment in sporting facilities and training before and after the Olympics (Barr 2012). As Spanish sportswriter Juan Jose Paradis e explains, the Barcelona Olympics put the Spanish flair for sport and drama on international display (Barr 2012).Nowadays, the names Real Madrid and FCC Barcelona re synonymous with prestige and glory in a way that could not have been imagined before the games. This interest in sport has translated at an interpersonal level as well. According to the International Olympic Committee, the increase in the proportion of the population doing some mixed bag of physical activity at least once a week increased from 36% in 1 983 to 51% in 1 995 and womens participation in organized sports increased 10% nationwide during the aforesaid(prenominal) period (International 2013).One final area of development for Barcelona before, during, and after the Olympics is in the urban renewal that took place. Most significantly, Barcelona today is characterized strongly by its beachfront. However, the city did not really have a beach before. Rather, the Barcelona Olympic Committee created two miles of beachfront and a modern marina by demolishing industrial buildings on the waterfront before the games (Taylor 2012). For the city, the Olympics represented a significant effort to restructure.