Grado

International Journal of Tourism Sciences, Volume 8, Number 1, pp. 89-105, 2008 Tourism Sciences Society of Korea. All rights reserved.

BARCELONA'S CULTURAL TOURISM PROMOTION STRATEGY
1)Jeong-Ook

Kim*

Kyonggi University

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the strategy including the weakness and potential difficulties as well as the strong points and opportunities, andfinally to learn from this successful situation and take into account the weakness. This study can be used as an example for different cities that are willing to develop their own strategy in order to develop their cultural tourist market. ≪Turisme de Barcelona≫ is a tourism promotion organization which uses culture as a fundamental factor for placing Barcelona in the international tourism market.≪Turisme de Barcelona≫ had as an objective to make the most income as possible by multiplying budget by ten. It would be necessary to increase the contribution of these institutions more than others coming from outside Barcelona. The city destinations are competing against each other. Although some joint activities could be beneficial. There are some actions than could be taken in order to work alongwith other cities or tourism companies, while keeping independent in some aspects. This is something that needs to be continuous in order to grow

Keywords: Barcelona, cultural tourism, promotion strategy, tourist market

* Ph. D., Kyonggi University, E-mail: benos7@hanmail.net

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Jeong-Ook Kim

INTRODUCTION
≪Turisme de Barcelona≫ appeared in 1993 and is a joint project of threeinstitutions from the city: The Barcelona City Hall, The Official Trade, Industry and Navigation Chamber and the Barcelona Promocio Foundation. It was established as a private-public consortium and continued the tourism promotion of the city that began in 1981 began by the Patronato Municipal de Turismo, a municipal public organization. In the late eighties, the city became an important touristdestination in the summer months. Because it is near one of the most popular European beach destinations, it had a many tourists, mainly daytime visitors that spent the night on the Mediterranean coastline. During the rest of the year, there were a few tourists. Those who did visit Barcelona were there because of the economy and industry of the city, not for Barcelona's cultural character. However, inten years Barcelona was placed amongst the greatest tourist capitals in Europe, thanks to an elaborate plan. The Olympic Games Organization in 1992 began a great international campaign and Barcelona showed its architectural and cultural appeal. Barcelona quickly changed from a relatively unknown industrial city to be one of the most demanded European capitals because of its cultural appeal. Thanksto ≪Turisme de Barcelona≫ and its slogan "Barcelona is culture" it achieved this success. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates that 37percent of international tourist are cultural tourists (Gratton C& Richard G.(1996). 91,000,000 tourists were recorded in 2003, 38,000,000 of whom stayed the night. This record was achieved after the great event of 2002, the "Gaudi Year", which occurredduring a world tourism crisis due to the economic recession and the effect of September 11th. Many of these tourists were attracted by the cultural appeal of the city and it was mainly architectural appeal of international importance. A great part of this promotion had an effect on its cultural tourism development.

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Here we will analyze thework carried out by ≪Turisme de Barcelona≫, from its beginning to the inauguration of the Forum Universal de las Culturas 2004, the last great cultural event of the city. First we analyze the evolution of the tourist market during the nineties and 2000. Then we present, from the professional and individual point of view, the strategy of cultural tourism attraction and the consortium with...