Bilbao Effect

Bilboa has been much touted as a model of culture- and tourism-led urban regeneration. Of course, many Korean planners and designers have pilgrimaged this once-declining Spanish industrial town, it seems, except me! This NYT article is not specifically about urban regeneration. Rather it is about tourism written by a travel journalist. But this traveler's point of view seems insightful since culture and tourism were employed as the two key jump engines for Bilbo's regeneration strategy.

Some excerpt:
. . .
Even for those who couldn't spell “Bilbao,” let alone pronounce it (bill-BAH-o), the city became synonymous with the ensuing worldwide rush by urbanists to erect trophy buildings, in the hopes of turning second-tier cities into tourist magnets. The so-called Bilbao Effect was studied in universities throughout the world as a textbook example of how to repackage cities with “wow-factor” architecture. And as cities from Denver to Dubai followed in Bilbao's footsteps, Mr. Gehry and his fellow starchitects were elevated to the role of urban messiahs.

But what has the Bilbao Effect meant for Bilbao?
. . .
The concentration of first-rate architecture is astounding, even without Gehry's titanium masterpiece. But architecture alone does not a city make. Bilbao is all dressed-up, but hasn't figured where to go.

Some facts:
Bilbao population: 354,000
Bilbao analogue: Pittsburg of Spain
Bilbao's economic change: from industrial workers to hotel clerks and art collectors
Opening of Guggenhaim: 1997
Guggenhaim visitor: 100,000 a month, over a million a year. By the end of 2006, a toal of nine million after 1997 opening.

For your comparison:
Korea National Museum in Yongsan, Seoul,known as the sixth largest building in the world: a total of five million visitors after 2005 October opening - almost 100,000 a day in average(yet, might reflect opening syndrom).

o From JoongAng Sunday
o From JoongAng Sunday