The holding of world-class events leads to the construction of ad hoc properties, which then become flagship hotels in the city where they are located, as is the case of the Barcelo Renacimiento, opened in Seville 20 years ago.
Seville owes the Universal Exhibition a lot more than the fact that the event put the city in the international spotlight in 1992. Among other infrastructures built to host such a large event, the Barcelo Renacimiento – opened 20 years ago – has become a benchmark property positioning Seville both as a holiday and business tourism destination.
The Barcelo Renacimiento differed from the existing preconception of a hotel, updating all the pretentions of other hotels built for this kind of event, thus introducing differential and differentiating elements in the local hotel industry. A workforce totalling at one point 250 professionals, recruited from many of the city’s classic and best known hotels; its modern architectural concept of the atrium, until then unknown in Seville, as a space richer in social, environmental and aesthetic interaction; the ratio between its floor area per room, which totalled 150sqm compared with the conventional 70sqm offered by its competitor set, and its cutting-edge telecom infrastructure, to name but a few.
The Barcelo Renacimiento in Seville
Same objective, two hotel concepts
The Barcelo Renacimiento was designed to be the flagship hotel of the Universal Exhibition, held in Seville in 1992, as with another of the city’s best know properties, whose opening coincided with the Latin American Exhibition of 1929: a difference of nearly 60 years highlighting the evolution of the hotel concept.
While the older of the two hotels was designed in keeping with the historicist canons characterizing the buildings that were constructed at the time, following the successful trend of hotels in Paris and New York, and being the country’s most exclusive window to the world, the Barcelo Renacimiento features a more polished and simple, although effective, style. The property decided to specialize in the meetings and event industry, well before it became a trend of which it is now the leader: a concept combining space and aesthetics, a hotel more open to its surroundings, whose original design has evolved with time and proved to be a great success.
Spacious guest rooms and communal areas, and a modern convention centre built in 2003, which revolutionized the local tourist and hotel industry, repositioning the city in the meeting and event market and attracting world-class events. This benchmark property begins its third decade with renewed expectations and resolutions.
