It’s hard to calculate the economic impact of major events they have been held in Barcelona since the Games put the city on the map; some are difficult to quantify, others may incorporate an overestimation by their promoters, others have not been taken into account, when this transparency exercise would probably be necessary and positive. However, an estimate of the economic impact of fairs, congresses, major sporting events and festivals in the pre-pandemic 2019 offers a remarkable figure, 5,100 million euros, with a distribution in which fairs and congresses contribute the lion’s share. In the post-pandemic scenario, the total volume is still unknown, with a packed agenda for the coming years but the Asian market still reluctant to face-to-face, and with sporting events predictably gaining weight thanks to the winning of the America’s Sailing Cup. The sheer volume of jobs and activity sustained by this sector, not to mention the the feedback of the international brand image of Barcelona, demonstrates to what extent maintaining the city’s attractiveness vis-à-vis its many competitors should be a priority, and underestimating this volume of business, considering it a contribution to the city’s wealth that is dispensable compared to other levers more linked to the productive economy, a frivolity when not irresponsibility.
It is difficult to sustain, after the tremendous blows suffered by businessmen and workers in the hospitality industry and many other sectors during the pandemic, those speeches that denounced the Mobile World Congress as “unsustainable”, demanded the cessation of all public support for the circuit of Montmelo, they did not react to the possibility of leaks like the one at Primavera Sound or they only saw after the celebration of the Copa América the shadows of their passage through the Valencia of Camps and Barberà. It is also in the past (or should be in it) the most primary anti-tourist discourse: Not all tourist activity offers the city more positive than negative impacts, and a new model of tourism for the city must consider it. But if any of them does offer a clearly positive balance, it is precisely the tourism of fairs and congresses, festivals and sports.
There was also a proposal to completely eradicate the Fira from its traditional location on Montjuïc. However, a participatory process with the involvement and agreement of both the town hall and the Fira itself gave birth to a proposal for the future last February, for the horizon of 2029, which the Fira would maintain the use of 53% of the space it now occupies to be used for congresses or small and medium-sized events open to the general public and that require greater urban centrality and a renovation of the available spaces, next to the great professional events in the L’Hospitalet complex. The rest will be dedicated a mix that will integrate the Fira into the urban fabric of its adjoining neighbourhoods, to social housing and neighborhood and cultural facilities.
However, even with the good prospects that have arisen after the pandemic break, the activity of fairs and congresses meets with future challenges, marked by the uncertainties surrounding the future volume of air traffic, the global economic situation and the temptation to transfer increasingly varied activities to non-face-to-face formats. As the Fira de Barcelona will do at the Montjuïc venue, the sector must continue to renew its offer to maintain its attractiveness. And the organizations that attract new events, to have the support of all the administrations to continue adding activity to the city’s annual calendar.