Foto: Guille Mendia
Perhaps the Mayor will pay attention to this story, because it affects the pockets of the hotel owners in Barcelona.
Barcelona lost visitors, Mr Mayor, it lost visitors, bednights, airport taxes paid, taxis hired, beers bought, trinkets purchased. It lost money. Why?
People were afraid of being robbed in Barcelona.
Here’s the story, from our contributor Don Simon:
“The international company I work for – headquartered in Oslo – wanted to have a conference recently. I was asked if Barcelona would be suitable for the conference (for 40 people from Norway, the UK, US, Canada, Brazil, Russia, the Middle East and Asia) and I said that probably almost half the attendees would be robbed.
I mentioned that I had been robbed in Barcelona (wallet stolen on the metro, as well as several “Ronaldinho“ attempts) and several friends had also been robbed in Barcelona despite being fairly streetwise and knowing the city (one friend was followed into the entry foyer of his hotel and had his jacket taken from him by force, with a mobile phone and wallet inside). Another colleague mentioned that he had visited Barcelona with friends and members of their party had been robbed on three separate occasions. The boss said ‘Lisbon it is’.
Forty of us stayed three nights in a four-star hotel in Lisbon. Many of us arrived at different times from different destinations so more than 20 taxis were used from the airport (and back). We used the hotel conference rooms and catering, as well as several other restaurants and bars in the city in the evenings. Almost all the staff used free time to go shopping/sightseeing/eating/drinking. We all took a guided tour of the city. I would estimate the company spent about €1,000 euros per head, plus there was personal spending, so I’d say a total of about €50,000 was lost to Barcelona. Most of the staff took connecting flights to Lisbon from European hubs with TAP Portugal, so that’s another consideration, as Spanish and Catalan airline carriers weren’t used.
No one was robbed in Lisbon.”
We at “Robbed in Barcelona” have also seen evidence (scroll down to “Tom Thumb on October 20, 2011 at 10:49 am) of a separate company, which did not open an office in Barcelona for the same reason. The boss’s wife was held-up with a knife while her husband was looking for a suitable office to employ 40 people. They chose elsewhere. Forty people would have helped Catalunya’s crippled economy.
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Great post ! There must be other examples of this & it would very interesting to find them – maybe this will cause some concern…. the pela being the pela & all that ….?
I work for a multinational company in the centre of Barcelona. We sell in 100+ countries and are growing yearly. We make international sales meetings a few times per year, each meeting costs between 20-25.000 Euros. We NEVER do it in Barcelona. It is enough that our many of our clients that have come here on their own initiative have been robbed, imagine the security risk of a 20 odd countries! Dubai, Munich, Prague, Athens, Miami… so much safer! I hate this situation but nothing has ever been done about it. Everyone here has been robbed, knows someone who has been robbed or has seen someone being robbed. If you don’t then you have never been on Via Layetana! Love the place, hate the crime…
40 people is nothing is comparison with the international epilepsy congress which is visited by thousands of doctors and media members. Barcelona lost to Montreal. I have a friend who works there and they were considering Barcelona but decided not to because of the robbery problem.
Eifa, I’m going to drop you a mail in a few hours. Interesting comment, this.
Elfa, I’m trying to get solid numbers on the number of doctors who would have come, or the number who are going to Montreal, or even the number who went to the last congress in 2010 but I’m unable to. Any ideas?
I can understand that Barcelona loses to Montreal… but to Lisbon??? Have those people ever been there? I have and the robbery problems there are worse than here in Barcelona, I can tell you!!!
What??? Are u talking about the same cities??? Lisbon is a perfect place for events a secure city
Can I say Lisboa is worse than Barcelona ! When it comes to crime and there they get very violent !