Trailing the negotiations between political parties, in Catalonia two controversial projects have been put back on the table: the expansion of El Prat airport and the Hard Rock recreational and gaming complex (formerly BCN World, next to the Port Aventura theme park ). The life of this last project began more than 10 years ago and has gone through multiple incidents and modifications that mark its content and scope, changes of promoters, valuation of expropriations, distribution of the local cake between Vila-seca and Salou, controversies about the use of public money to buy the land, future drastic reduction in taxes, disputes over the urban master plan, court rulings and a long etcetera, which clearly outline a tortuous path and we will see how it ends.
The 20212 announcement spoke of six theme parks, six hotels and six casinos, with an investment of close to 5,000 million euros, which would generate 20,000 direct jobs and 10 times this figure in indirect jobs. Then it went to 2,000 jobs when the project was fully operational and 12,000 in the construction phase. Right now, the public detail of the project is an enigma, although there is talk of a casino of 8,500 meters and 1,200 machines, 600 hotel rooms, a super swimming pool, a super auditorium, luxury shops, restaurants... Everything, in a complex of bracelet with its own life disconnected from the outside.
With all due respect to those involved (banks, developers, town halls, Generalitat), I believe that the Hard Rock is not the type of project that the Catalan economy and society needs. For four reasons. The first is that it represents an extension and a deepening of the mass tourism model of Port Aventura, which attracts five million visitors in a normal year. The project would consolidate a model that common sense has indicated for years that we would have to shy away from, in order to move from quantity to quality, respect for the environment and good wages. The second reason is related to added value. Having the game as the star of the project does not link with the creation, but with the destruction of value. The game is located in the antipodes of a value so necessary for economic and social progress such as personal effort, the basis of the Catalan economy.
Thirdly, it is well known that the gambling vector and specifically casino in a project of this magnitude cannot be dissociated from the risks in terms of citizen security, money laundering, prostitution, gambling... Finally, the jobs that It would generate are also in the antipodes of a competitiveness model based on knowledge and excellence, with the addition of a chronic labor shortage and low local interest in the jobs that the project would offer. It will be seen if the project goes ahead, but, frankly, I think that nothing suits us.
