Barcelona effect in tourism. Analysis of the influence of selected large sporting events on tourist traffic in selected destinations-organizers

Abstract

The present article covers an analysis of the changes in the sizes of the tourist traffic in those destinations (cities or states) that organize large sporting events (the European Football Cup, the World Football Cup, the Summer Olympic Games). The author’s intention was to demonstrate whether events of this type have a direct contribution to increased numbers of incoming tourists (in the perspective of several years), and whether the Barcelona effect phenomenon appears in the cases analyzed. The analysis that was conducted demonstrated clearly that the Barcelona effect is a very rare phenomenon. Apart from the Olympic Games in Barcelona in the year 1992, it is hard to talk of a similar scale of this phenomenon in the recent years. An analysis of the statistical data for the individual cities and towns demonstrated that the scale of the impact of mass events is chiefly of a local or regional nature. It is hard to talk of an influence on the whole state as in many cases, a reduction was observed of the numbers of tourists while a given event was held or directly in the years to follow.