Connect with us

Special Reports

Two-Minute Tour: Barcelona

Retailers continue to open new stores on the back of a strong tourism trade

mm

Published

on

The Numbers

While Spain is under economic burden, Barcelona continues to party. Although it’s the country’s second largest city after Madrid, the majority of its 1.6 million inhabitants view the city as the capital of Catalonia – a region with its own customs and language, although the latter is a close relative of Castilian Spanish. Voted the second most effective city in 2011 at self-promotion, behind London, in Cushman & Wakefield’s annual European Cities Monitor, it also garnered the top spot for “quality of life” and “freedom from pollution” in the same survey, alongside Stockholm. That said, it ranked only twelfth in terms of convenience of transport links with other European cities – this is not the easiest of places to get to.

The Hotspots

Any first-time Barcelona visitor will be pointed in the direction of Las Ramblas, the pedestrian thoroughfare through the heart of an area that incorporates the Barri Gòtic (the Gothic Quarter) and El Raval neighborhoods. This is the city’s medieval heart, and here, after a quick scoot around the foodie market that is La Bocqueria, visitors can check out the many independent retailers located in the warren of small streets and alleyways that characterize this part of the city. Happy Pills, a confectionary store that looks like a pharmacy, is a must-see, as is designer lingerie store Le Boudoir. More mainstream mid-market and luxury retail fare is to be found on the Avenida Diagonal, which has Diagonal Mar, the region’s biggest shopping mall, at its eastern extremity. And finally, no visit to the city would be complete without a walk around Las Arenas de Barcelona, the city’s former bullring, which was reborn as a major shopping mall in early 2011 and which has created a new retail axis for the city.

Obstacles and Opportunities

Barcelona has not been immune to the economic turbulence that has hit Spain over the past few years. Unemployment stood at 24 percent at the end of March this year, according to the Catalan News Agency, and shows no sign of falling.
The city remains a tourist hotbed, however, and retailers continue to open new stores on the back of a year-round influx of dollar- and euro-rich visitors who do much to prevent the area from imploding. On paper, this is a city that should show signs of depression, yet this is far from evident when walking its retail neighborhoods.

Advertisement

 

Advertisement

SPONSORED HEADLINE

7 design trends to drive customer behavior in 2024

7 design trends to drive customer behavior in 2024

In-store marketing and design trends to watch in 2024 (+how to execute them!). Learn More.

Promoted Headlines

Most Popular