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The goofy Barcelona Island hotel project that wants to be the tallest in Europe
DestinationsA press release put out by Mobilona Space Hotels today introduced the young hospitality company’s plans for a new hotel in Barcelona, dubbed Barcelona Island. And boy is it ugly, combining the silliest of Flash Gordon-inspired “space” architecture with the worst of 1980s Italian furniture design. The good news is that it’s not likely to [...]
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A floating hotel and luxury treehouses are worth the climb in Barcelona area
DestinationsEconomic meltdown in Europe may not have halted the flow of visitors to Barcelona and beyond, but the hotel industry is finding ever more inventive and eye-catching ways to take a slice of the tourist pie. Bedevilled by delays, purpose-built floating hotel Sunborn Barcelona (+34 93 364 4040, sunbornbarcelona.com) is expected to open at the [...]
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Catalan leaders argue benefits of Catalonia’s independence from Spain
DestinationsAlbert Macia is on the board of an IT multinational. Joan Cabanas is an industrial engineer doing project management in the electrical insulation sector. After a long career working for assorted multinationals, Joan Canadell is now a consultant. And Ramir de Porrate runs a successful radio frequency systems startup. The four are leading lights in [...]
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Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia gets a digital makeover, just because
DestinationsMirroring the vigor and passion that has fueled the continued building process and ongoing restoration, funded by donations, the cities of Barcelona and Montreal invited Moment Factory to create a 15-minute tribute to the church. Sagrada Familia (Ode à la vie) – Démo officiel from Moment Factory on Vimeo.
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Will the Euro crisis lead Catalonia to declare itself Europe’s newest nation?
DestinationsSeptember 11 always brings Barcelonans into the streets to dance the sardana, sing for their enemies’ blood in the anthem Els Segaders, and chant political slogans in celebration of their national holiday, the Diada de Catalunya. But this year, a new intensity colored the Catalans’ nationalist fervor. The independence movement’s flag bearing a white star [...]
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The El Clásico snub: Sands picks Madrid over Barcelona for the $65 billion EuroVegas project
DestinationsCasino giant Las Vegas Sands Corp. picked Madrid over Barcelona for a multi-billion dollar Spainish gambling resort project dubbed “EuroVegas.” The Spanish capital, the country’s largest city, emerged as the company’s best choice for the development, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson said in a statement released late Friday in Las Vegas. “The [...]
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Hotel brands think Barcelona plus the debt crisis equal a smart investment
DestinationsWith property prices low and visitor figures relatively high in Barcelona amid the broader euro crisis, global hotel brands see this as the perfect moment to develop and invest in the stable international tourist destination. Figures from the Barcelona Hotel Association for the first quarter of 2012 show a year-on-year hike in roomnights of nearly [...]
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Sharp decline in local tourism in Spain; tough summer ahead?
DestinationsSpain’s tourism industry is bracing itself for a painful slowdown in bookings this summer, driven by a steep decline in local tourism due to economic crisis. Reservations by Spanish vacationers for July are 30% lower than last year. Hoteliers are concerned that govt may raise the industry’s value-added tax to 18% from the current 8% [...]
