Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia, is the leading commercial and industrial center in Spain. The city hosted the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, and as a part of the process of preparing to host the games entered into a major rehabilitation and redevelopment of the physical infrastructure. For the host city, a major focus of any event such as an Olympic Games is directed toward the development of tourism. A critical component of any tourism effort is the hotel industry. This study examined the hotel industry in Barcelona with a view toward the identification of problems and the development of strategies to permit the hotel firms in the city to maintain high occupancy rates in the post Olympics period.
Some new hotels were built in Barcelona in anticipation of the Olympic Games in 1992, and many more such establishments were renovated and expanded for the event. During the relatively brief period while the games were being conducted, Barcelona's hotels were filled to capacity. While no expected the occupancy rates in Barcelona's hotels to remain at near capacity following the end of the games, neither was a drop back to the depressed
occupancy levels of 1991 expected. Yet, it is that scenario that occurred. Barcelona and the city's tourism sector must effectively address this problem if the hotels in the city are to survive, much less thrive.
The purpose of this study was to develop a body of information that may be used effectively by hotel managers in Barcelona to improve occupancy rates. An improvement in occupancy rates is the key to the survival of many of the city's hotels in the post Olympic Games period.
An examination of Spanish demographic, economic, and political data relevant to the problem investigated in presented in Chapter 2. Information relevant to tourism and the hotel industry is presented in Chapter 3. The findings of the investigation into the specific problems faced by ...