Culture suffers after the pandemic
According to data from the ground floor premises census of the Barcelona City Council, half a hundred bookstores have closed from 2019 to 2022 in the regional city.
Since 2019, the premises data on the Open Data Bcn portal has not been updated, and these are the first records to observe the change in the trend of trade after the covid-19 crisis. Consult the map we have made from Storydata of the years before and after the pandemic.
But bookstores are not the activity sector most affected by the pandemic. Digitization, confinement and telecommuting have wreaked havoc on some economic activities more than others. Fashion stores (-523), restaurants (-511), offices (-250), banking and insurance offices (-214) and footwear and leather businesses, with 187 less premises, were the most affected.