New Spain Holidays Campaign Recruits Real Madrid
A new campaign by the Spanish tourist board hopes to promote Spain as the home of some of the world's top sportsmen.
Following the success of its previous campaign, which sold Spain holidays on the basis of the incredible cuisine to be found in the country – and the birthplace of top award-winning chef Ferran Adria – Turespaña has been promoting Spain and Madrid holidays with the help of the Spanish capital's star team Real Madrid. With the slogan Visit Spain, Visit Madrid, the Turespaña campaign aims to take its message to over 300 million people worldwide.
Many of its intended audience will be UK holidaymakers, as Spain holidays are a perennial favourite among Britons who are attracted every bit as much by the ever-increasing number of cheap flights to Madrid and other Spanish cities, as by the traditional rallying cries of sun, sand and sangria. It may also help that Real Madrid will face the English Premiership's Tottenham Hotspur in the next round of the Champions League.
Leading Real Madrid players are set to become "brand ambassadors" for Spain and Madrid holidays, said a Turespaña spokeswoman.
"This is a groundbreaking agreement in which both Madrid and Spain will be promoted internationally through one of the most renowned clubs worldwide promoting both tourism brands to all corners of the globe," she added. "The agreement also provides for the utilisation of advertising space in each of the official matches in the league and the Cup to be held in Santiago Bernabeu Stadium organised by Real Madrid."
Figures published this week showed that Spain holidays remained one of the world's most popular destinations last year.
The country boasted the largest number of overnight stays by international visitors in the EU. Throughout 2010 some 268 million overnight stays were recorded, making this a 6.4 per cent increase compared to Spain's performance back in 2009.
Travel Industry News posted by 
on 19 March 2011
