Before the last edition of Sónar and its 120,000 attendees, for two consecutive weekends the Spring Sound, which meant 350 million euros for Barcelona. It is the economic impact that the organizers calculate that this music festival leaves in the city, a figure -they said at the balance press conference- that placed it just after the Mobile World Congress in importance. Two of the co-directors of the event were not wrong with their bet, Alfonso Lanza Y Gaby Ruiz, especially this year, that the festival has doubled the concert days and that the mobile technology congress has still closed with fewer attendees than before the pandemic and without a large part of its Asian audience. Thus, the technology fair has reduced this year practically by half the economic footprint that he left in the Catalan capital before covid (473 million euros).
In any case, preparing the ranking is not an easy task. Not even knowing how far the joint impact of all the major events held in the city reaches: at least, and according to 2019 data compiled by EL PERIÓDICO, the figure reaches 5,100 million eurosa volume that focuses both on the calculation of diary spend of the attendees of an event according to their characteristics, such as the companies it brings to the city the meeting or even the business that is estimated to be created around it.
“Each one has their methodology & rdquor ;, warns a source who knows the preparation of these reports well and who adds to this problem that there is a lack of information to make a complete analysis. “Many times what happens is that we do not have data: on the one hand because the festivals themselves do not generate them and on the other because it is difficult to analyze if an impact is strictly linked to a single event”, details the professor and researcher of the studies of arts and humanities at the UOC and an expert in event management, Alba Colombo. “How do you know if someone has come just for Sónar or also for Primavera Sound?”, exemplifies the academic.
Congresses, festivals and sports
Despite everything, there are formulas to approximate a figure. Thus, the Barcelona Fair calculates, with data from 2019, that the 155 fairs and congresses that were held in the city that year had an economic impact of 4,700 million euros. The Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunyathat the fifteen most important music festivals in the community generated an impact of more than 320 million also before the pandemic, of which the vast majority came from the Spring Sound (120 million according to the organizers) and the Dream (close to 125 million if the activities carried out throughout the city and based on 2016 data are taken into account). According to its organizers, the GuitarBCN and the jazz festival they represent another 15 million. To this, the Circuit of Barcelona totals 192 million euros, especially between Formula 1 Y motorcycle gp. And, according to himBarcelona Sports Institutethe Vuelta Ciclista will add another 2 million next year.
In total, at least 5,100 million euros that do not take into account conventions, cultural events that are not musical, and other sports competitions such as the Barcelona Marathonthe World Padel Tour or the Conde de Godó Tennis Tournament, which, in fact, are also key to the city. Without going any further, it is estimated that the America’s Sailing Cup will have a 1,000 million euro economic impact, a volume so high that it would lower the weight of congresses and fairs in the total calculation by 15 points (now 90%), and that is more important than four of the most important events together: Mobile, Alimentaria, Primavera Sound and Formula 1.
Because according to this data -many of which are still out of date- the events that leave the most money in Barcelona are the Mobile World Congress (473 million in its pre-pandemic edition), the congress Food & Hostelco (200 million), the sports events of the Circuit (192 million), the Dream (125 million in 2015), the Spring Sound (120 million also in its last edition before the pandemic with only one weekend, which is the dynamic that will prevail again from next year), the Seafood Expo (100 million euros this year), the Smart City Expo (90 million), the ESC Conferenceannual congress of the European Society of Cardiology (about 70 million based on data from well before the pandemic) and the meeting and incentive room IBTM World (approximately 50 million also according to old data).
In this list now sneaks in second position the Integrated Systems Events (ISE), who has valued his time in Barcelona this year at 215 million euros.
Universal exhibitions and Olympics
“An event, whether cultural, sports or corporate, generates an economic impact that ranges from the mobility of foreign people or their spending per day in the city, to the economic development that this specific event contributes,” Colombo contextualizes. “This also generates sightseeing, brand interest… because if Barcelona is currently a brand it is first thanks to the universal exhibitionsthen at olympics and thirdly, to Forum” continues.
However, one of its great claims is that to all this should be added the social impact analysis, because there are many very important events in Barcelona because they put people in contact, give them opportunities or generate community identity. “There are many types of impact and these can also generate economic impact later & rdquor ;, she points out.
“For the city of Barcelona, major events are a catalyst for opportunities both to promote the city and to improve our infrastructures, attract tourism and generate economic development and jobs”, agrees the first deputy mayor of Barcelona, James Collboni. According to this municipal representative, the fact that the city is “an aspirational destination for major international events” means “a generation of value both for the city and for the events themselves”.
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In addition, according to the UOC professor, the city’s new flagship events are linking Barcelona with very specific sectors, such as artthe technology and the science.
“Then you also have a critical view, because there are impacts that can also be negative: there are events that come from abroad to export their brand, that exploit our territory but that promote a type of tourism that is not of interest to the city and that can cause damage. at the level of coexistence”, warns Colombo, thinking for example of football grand finals. The conclusion “is that an event will never be a total solution or a total culprit: above all, because it is increasingly complex to isolate one event from another & rdquor ;, he concludes. And more so in Barcelona, where she overflows with them.