Spain's largest cities launch tourism campaigns

Madrid, June 28: Madrid and Barcelona, the two largest cities in Spain, have launched promotion campaigns to lure back international tourists as the Covid-19 restrictions in the country were now being relaxed.

"If life were a city, it'd be Madrid" and "Barcelona like never before" are the slogans of the two campaigns aimed at reactivating tourism after over a year of mobility restrictions due to the pandemic, Xinhua news agency.

The campaigns come with lively promotional videos running in Spanish and English that highlight some of the unique attractions of each city.

The Barcelona video is a montage showing visitors enjoying different aspects of the city, while the Madrid video proposes 10 activities to do in the capital city.

"We are making an effort to communicate all of the advantages offered by Madrid, which is one of the best cities to enjoy in the world and which has an incredible quality of life," Ana Alemany, head of the Madrid Promotion and Brand Service, told Xinhua on Sunday.

With restrictions on international visitors coming to Spain removed on June 7 and the face mask mandate in outdoor spaces scrapped on June 26, the campaigns focus on some of the cities' strongest selling points for international visitors.

"Barcelona is one of the most important and relevant destinations in the world," Marian Muro, director of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, told Xinhua.

"Barcelona is a 'cool' city and so people want to visit it. It is also a clear exponent of a Mediterranean city with a rich culture and gastronomy."

Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for 7 per cent of Madrid's annual gross domestic product (GDP), according to the regional authority, while the Barcelona City Council estimated that tourism made up 12 per cent of the city's GDP.

Exceltur, the Alliance for Excellency in Tourism which represents many of Spain's largest tourism companies, had recently forecast that this summer the country will recover over 70 per cent of the activity registered in 2019, which was a record year for the sector.

Starting from June 7, international travellers who have undergone the vaccination process using one of the jabs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), or those with a negative certificate of a Diagnostic Test of Active Infection or a certificate of Recovery after having passed this disease, are allowed entry to Spain.