The Diplomat
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has announced the launch of the Asia Plan, a program endowed with four million euros for the promotion of tourism in the capital in China, Japan, South Korea and India.
“A tourism that has an average stay of seven days in a city is a particularly attractive tourism for Madrid,” said Almeida during the presentation of the Plan, which took place last Monday on the occasion of the celebration of the first Madrid City Tourism Forum, organized by the Tourism Delegate Area of the City Council of the capital.
Thanks to the contributions of Madrid Turismo by IFEMA (a joint project of the Community of Madrid, the Madrid City Council and IFEMA) and the Delegated Area itself, the Asia Plan will have a budget of “up to four million euros” to carry out marketing campaigns, trips and presentations at the destination in order to recover travelers and increase turnover and stays.
Of these destinations, China is the market that was experiencing the greatest growth before the pandemic, with approximately 20%, and whose average daily expenditure in 2019 was 365 euros. Therefore, according to the mayor, connectivity with China is being recovered almost 100% and in summer Madrid will be directly connected through five Chinese airlines with five destinations and 14 on weekends.
The mayor also highlighted, during his participation in the round table Madrid, a city to live, to visit, to invest, that Madrid has been chosen as the fourth best urban tourist destination in the world, behind Dubai, London and Paris, and, “for the fourth consecutive year”, the best world destination “in business tourism”.
The first Madrid City Tourism Forum brought together the whole of Madrid’s tourism sector to promote Madrid as a leading urban tourism destination. In collaboration with leading professionals from the sector, the Forum analyzed the evolution of tourism in the capital, its positioning, forecasts and expectations for the future.
According to the Councilor for Tourism, Almudena Maíllo, Madrid has managed to return to normality after the pandemic and has recovered nine out of ten travelers and 82% of business tourism. The average expenditure per tourist has increased in Madrid by 21 % and the total expenditure has gone from 1,368 euros in 2019 to 1,569 euros in 2022. The United States, the leading issuer of international tourism to Madrid, is the market with the highest volume of spending, increasing by 42 %, just nine points away from reaching the 2019 figures.
