Google has helped Barcelona live up to its title as the Mobile World Capital, as it launches 26 mobile sites for some of the city’s most famous attractions and businesses, including FC Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia, and the Picasso Museum, ahead of Mobile World Congress.

In a blog post announcing the initiative, Frank Albert Coates, Google's product marketing manager, mobile & social ads, EMEA, says: "We know that given a poor experience with a website on their mobile phone, 61 per cent of mobile users won't visit it again. In Spain, 44 per cent of consumers have a smartphone, but only 10 per cent of large businesses have a mobile optimized site. In addition, giving users an easy-to-navigate mobile-optimized site is key to a good experience as one in four smartphone users in Spain make purchases on their mobile."

Barcelona Go Mobile is an initiative created in collaboration with Invest in Catalonia, and supported by the Government of Catalonia and the City of Barcelona, which hopes to capitalise on the 15m tourism the region receives each year.