'Marca Barcelona' initiative aims to boost city's international profile

'Marca Barcelona' is a new branding initiative aimed at promoting the city around the world and managing its reputation with a "unique vision."

So says mayor, Ada Colau, who presented the project on Wednesday, arguing that Barcelona's international profile is "key," not only for attracting investment and generating business, but for also "improving the lives of residents."

The initiative aims to do this by getting Barcelona's main actors to pull together in the same direction with the objective of offering a new "account" of the city.

Presenting the Catalan capital as a global city that is about more than just tourism, the project also aspires to present it as an example of progress, and a "specialist in diversity."

170 city actors signed up

Signed up to the initiative are 170 of the city's institutions, organizations, professionals and cooperatives, with the project still in the initial phase of developing the profile that Barcelona will project to the world.

This will be followed by two more stages, one that promotes and spreads the account of the city around the world, and a third analyzing the results of the project.

Colau highlights city's "resilience"

Two aspects that Colau highlighted was the city's "resilience" to the "adversity" it has faced in recent years, and the fact that the profile to be developed must be "broadly shared" across society.

While the mayor championed the city as one of the most attractive in the world, she also insisted that more work was required to "highlight new strengths." "It is important that we trust in our potential," she added.