From Barcelona 1992 to Rio De Janeiro 2016
From Latin Europe to Latin America
From Barceloneta to Ipanema
From Montjuïc to Corcovado
However we look at this, we can already see some similarities! Both vibrant cities with city beaches and mountains.
Rio sees its vote as the first Olympic city in South America as a opportunity, with hopes of outshining Barcelona’s Olympic transformation back in 1992.
Last year the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, wrote an opinion piece in Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo proudly proclaiming that the Rio Olympics would leave the most important legacy in a city since the Barcelona 1992 Games.
Paes at Rio’s media center: “I’ve been told that there are two possibilities: Games that benefit from the city and the city which benefits from the Games. Rio will benefit from the Olympics and our legacy will be greater than that of Barcelona,”
BARCELONA BEFORE THE OLYMPICS – a very different place!
Today we tend to think of Barcelona as a city of sea, sun and sangria, but its easy to forget that before the Olympics in 1992, Barcelona was not the top travel destination that it is today. Despite its beautiful Mediterranean coastline and spectacular monuments and plazas, it didn’t even have a proper beach — as part of the massive regeneration program the city created almost 4 kilometers of beach and a modern marina.
Being mainly an industrial city, it also lacked key infrastructure, a problem that Rio de Janeiro was also facing. By demolishing all those industrial buildings on the waterfront before the games, the Olympic Village was built and the number of restaurants built to feed beach goers has shot up from seven to over 70.
Barcelona put two thirds of its budget into urban improvements. Tourism numbers increased from 1.7 million in 1991 to almost 9 million in 2015.
NOW – THE COSMOPOLITAN CAPITAL OF CATALONIA!
The Olympics in 1992 are not just credited with transforming the the physical elements of Barcelona itself, but also with re-branding a city that nowadays, is one of the continents most touristed areas.
From the regeneration of its waterfront into a center of nightlife and tourism, it became a incomparable major European city to offer an enjoyable land and sea experience.
And importantly the Olympics appear to have changed the way the world thought of Barcelona. According to one source, from 1990 and 2001, the city went from being the 11th “best city” in Europe to the 6th. The IOC says that 20 years after the games, Barcelona is now the 12th most popular city destination for tourists in the world, and the 4th in Europe.
There also seems to be a secondary outcome from the Olympic Games, and one that we suspect Cariocas might be very happy with if it happens over there: it turned Spain into a sporting powerhouse.
Spain now has world class athletes: football, basketball, cycling, and tennis to name a few. Many people claim this is a direct result of the investment in the sports facilities and training before and after the games in 1992.
Even though now, with increased house pricing, high unemployment, the opening of the city towards the sea and the construction of an urban beach was a popular Olympic project that remains a mostly positive legacy for the population.
Will the Rio Olympics also have a great lasting legacy? Only time will tell!
For those of you who board Ryan Air flights to our beautiful city this summer, take a break from Gaudi, tapas, beaches, and join our Electric Bike Tour to Montjuïc and its Olympic stadium, and check out the Olympic rings.