AAccording to its supporters, the America’s Cup, which weighed anchor in Barcelona last week, will generate €1 billion, create 19,000 jobs and attract 2.5 million additional visitors to the city by October 20, when the final sail is rolled up.

The ultimate sporting competition for the super-rich is the Spanish city’s latest attempt to focus tourism on “quality rather than quantity.”

“The people who follow the America’s Cup are people who love the sea and have plenty of disposable income,” says Mateu Hernández, head of the public-private company Barcelona Tourism.

“We are interested in these people. We need to improve the quality of visitors. But people confuse quality with wealth. What we want are people who come here to do something, be it to visit museums or enjoy the architecture and gastronomy.”

Barcelona is at the forefront of the so-called overtourism crisis in Spain, which received a record 85.1 million international tourists last year, 19% more than in 2022. Growing anger and frustration over the unchecked growth of tourism have led to a series of protests on the mainland as well as in the Balearic and Canary Islands in recent months.

To many locals, Hernández’s promise sounds disturbingly like the Monte Carlo model, where all but the wealthiest visitors are deterred while local residents suffer the collateral damage. Opponents of Barcelona hosting the America’s Cup say they fail to see how the city’s people would benefit.

“Nobody has explained where this one billion euros will be distributed,” said Martí Cusó, a spokesman for the Platform Against the Football Championship, an umbrella group representing about 150 community organizations.

Meanwhile, prices for temporary rental apartments in Barceloneta, the seaside district that is the focus of the competition, have risen to 4,000 to 5,000 euros a month, he says. “We are also concerned that holding this competition reinforces the idea that Barcelona’s economy must be based on tourism, while we want diversification,” Cusó said.

The America’s Cup was first held in 1851 on and around the Isle of Wight. Emirates Team New Zealand is the defending champion and will be challenged by boats from Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, France and the USA.

Hernández said the 1992 Olympics opened the beach to Barcelona, ​​while the America’s Cup is focused on the sea to make sailing, considered an elite sport in Spain, accessible to all.

The accusation of elitism is hard to shake off, however. Marina Port Vell, the company that operates the port, has invited guests to enjoy “gourmet cuisine, VIP onboard programs where you can watch the competitions live from premium ships, and luxury boutiques with leading international brands.”

Sebastian Rouse, who runs the sailing school Barcelona Watersports, which also offers trips out to sea, takes a relaxed view of the matter.

“First of all, they increased the berthing fee for sailing yachts from 1,000 to 15,000 euros a month for the duration of the event. That does not exactly speak for their loyalty to a company that has been operating here for over ten years,” he said.

This implies that there is so much money to be made from fans attending the race that business owners could easily recoup the costs. But Rouse and others in the industry say that while they remain optimistic, there have been few takers so far.

Ivy Scrancher, a local skipper, said: “You have to pay a lot of money to get close to the racing and even then you need a big screen on board to understand what is going on.”

As for job creation, she said virtually none of the race organizers are local. “All the people on the chase boats, the engineers, all the people who actually make money on this big event are not from here,” Scrancher said. “They come from New Zealand or Australia or somewhere else. They make $12,000 or $20,000 a month and take the money home. The only Spanish people involved are volunteers.”

Esther Jorquera, a resident of Barceloneta, also railed against the lack of paid jobs for locals. “They promised us jobs and then asked us to work for free,” she said. “The 2,000 volunteers they recruited were supposed to create 2,000 jobs.”

During a recent visit by the Guardian to the fan zone in Barceloneta, a few dozen people watched on a giant screen as the yachts – extraordinary feats of engineering and seamanship – whizzed across the water while a commentator explained their manoeuvres.

Cusó said the comparison with the Olympic Games, where young people from all over the world compete and represent their countries, was inaccurate. “We are talking about teams sponsored by Prada, Louis Vuitton and Emirates,” he said. “It’s about money.”