02/05/2004

May 2nd 2004

Within the debate taking place in Qatar, at the 4th Global Tourism Summit organized by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Antonio Nieto, General Director for Tourism for the region of Madrid thanked WTTC for the opportunity to express the gratitude of the people of Madrid to the world's tourism industry for all the messages of solidarity received after the events of March 11th.

He said: "The terrorists' attacks have had a slight impact on our tourism industry, but Madrid is already rebounding after only a few weeks. Data provided by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics shows that the number of international tourists that visited Madrid in the month of March 2004, grew more than 7,4%. This information clearly demonstrates that Madrid, as a tourist destination did not collapse and sends an optimistic message that the impact has been much lower than was expected in the first few days - although we need to be cautious about the next months."

Mr. Nieto continued: "A new promotional campaign on behalf of the Madrid region is to be launched in May in our main European markets.

He concluded: "In Spain, it's business as usual; people should continue to travel to Madrid or to anywhere else for that matter."