When global entertainment events bring attention, how can places turn that moment into lasting value?

What separates the winners from the rest?

Every few years, a city steps onto the global stage. The Olympics open. A World Cup kicks off. Billions tune in. For a short time, one place that normally competes against a hundred other destinations gets to be the one everyone is talking about.
And then it stops. The cameras and the athletes go home. The volunteers get a thank-you email and a branded tote bag. What’s left after the spotlight moves on?
For cities investing billions to host international sporting events, the hope is that visibility will translate into tourism, investment and long-term reputation. Being seen will make the city more desirable. Sometimes that works. Often it doesn’t.

At Saffron, we built <a href="https://citybrandbarometer.saffron-consultants.com/">City Brand Barometer 2025</a> (CBB) to understand what a world-class destination brand is made of. We measured 111 global cities across three pillars: 
<ul><li dir="ltr">Promise: how a city is perceived before visiting</li><li dir="ltr">Experience: what people actually encounter once they arrive</li><li dir="ltr">Delivery: the infrastructure that makes tourism work</li></ul>
Experience carries the most weight because being famous isn’t the same as being good.
CBB doesn’t measure whether a city has hosted a mega sporting event in the past. But it does capture the structural effects that those events are supposed to create: global visibility, search demand, infrastructure quality, cultural offer and visitor satisfaction. In other words, the research shows whether a host city successfully converted global attention into lasting brand performance.
The results are revealing.

<h2>The success story: Barcelona</h2>
Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics and genuinely transformed the city. The waterfront was rebuilt. The transport network expanded. More than thirty years later, the Mediterranean destination still benefits from that transformation. In CBB 2025, it <a href="https://citybrandbarometer.saffron-consultants.com/results/ranking?view=topTwenty">ranks</a> 10th overall.
The Games worked because Barcelona used them as a catalyst for deeper change. Infrastructure, public space and the city’s identity evolved together.

<h2>The cautionary tale: Rio</h2>
Rio de Janeiro hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, two of the most watched sporting events on earth. Yet in CBB 2025, Rio ranks 87th out of 111 cities.
Few places have a stronger Promise score than Rio. People <a href="https://citybrandbarometer.saffron-consultants.com/case-studies/from-hashtag-to-holiday">know the city</a> and feel drawn to it. But our research shows that brand awareness doesn’t close the gaps in areas like infrastructure, safety and service. When visitors arrive with expectations shaped by two weeks of media coverage and find a reality that does not consistently match, that mismatch erodes brand equity.
The point is that hosting is not a shortcut. You can spend billions preparing a city for three weeks of global television and still end up with an underperforming tourism brand.

The difference is found in what already exists before the opening of an event. Cities with strong identities and functioning infrastructure can use global events to amplify strengths that are already real, not try to transform their brand during their moment in the spotlight.

Mega-events are politically attractive because they generate international media coverage, infrastructure investment that might otherwise take decades, and a sense of pride from citizens. None of that is trivial.
But from a brand perspective, the equation is simple: Visibility creates expectation. Expectation demands delivery. If the everyday visitor experience doesn’t match the global broadcast, disappointment scales as quickly as attention once did.
That’s why the strongest tourism brands in CBB 2025—cities like <a href="https://citybrandbarometer.saffron-consultants.com/case-studies/the-mirror-cities">Tokyo, New York</a>, Vienna, Copenhagen—didn’t rise because of any single event. Instead, they invested in something less glamorous but far more durable: transport that works, cultural life that feels authentic, safe streets, and quality hospitality.

Brand strength is built in the years around the mega-events. 
The cities that benefit most from global events treat them as a showcase for a place that already understands itself. The ones that struggle are often the same ones hoping the event will define them. The world will always watch the opening ceremonies. The groundwork for what happens after is being laid now, in planning offices, transport networks and hospitality training programmes.
 Ben Knapp Executive Director, <a href="https://saffron-consultants.com/journal/introducing-lab">Lab </a>

When the spotlight moves on

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