Guggo's Power of Attraction

Here you have this article from Forbes about how a building's daring architecture is reshaping the city of Bilbao:

Connoisseur's Guide

'The Bilbao Effect'

Martin Bailey for The Art Newspaper

Spain's Guggenheim Bilbao had another excellent year, despite the tourism slump following Sept. 11. Visitor numbers were 930,000, only slightly down from 2000. Foreign tourists represented 48% of the total, with the largest contingents coming from France, the U.S., Britain, Germany and Italy. Spaniards from outside the Basque Country accounted for a further 35% and the remaining 17% were locals.

With its dramatic architecture, the museum continues to be a major draw, attracting people who would otherwise not come. The Bilbao estimates that its economic impact on the local economy was worth €168 million (approximately $147 million) last year--up from €149 million ($130 million) in 2000--and it also brought in a further €27 million ($23 million) to the Basque treasury in taxes. This represents the equivalent of 4,415 jobs. A visitor survey revealed that 82% came to the city of Bilbao exclusively to see the museum or had extended their stay in the city to visit it.

In addition to €8.9 million ($7.8 million) spent inside the museum, visitors spent much larger sums in the city on accommodations ($43 million), catering ($35 million), shopping ($13 million), transport ($9.5 million) and leisure ($6.6 million). Of last year's three main exhibitions, the most popular was "Giorgio Armani," which attracted 529,000 people. The others were "The Worlds of Nam June Paik" (417,000) and "Frank Gehry" (195,000, up to Dec. 31).

The permanent collection received 250,000 visitors, while 239,000 people participated in educational programs, 14,000 paid to be individual members and 140 companies signed up to be corporate members. Last year 73% of the museum's expenditure was self-funded.

Although visitor numbers are down from the very high numbers in the first two years, this is not unexpected, and the Guggenheim Bilbao remains one of Spain's top tourist attractions.

Despite attempts to emulate the "Bilbao effect" elsewhere in the world, very few new museums or galleries outside capital cities have succeeded in getting so many visitors. Gehry's architecture and the Guggenheim's art have proved an irresistible combination.

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