Madrid Attacks Barely Hit Spanish Tourism

The bombings of the Madrid commuter trains last March 11 have barely made a dent in Spain´s travel industry, said Reinhard Klein of the European Commission.

Only the Spanish capital was shocked by the attacks that sent no bad vibes to the coastal cities where millions of visitors travel to every year, Mr. Klein pointed out in a press conference held in Brussels.

In addition to this, the high-ranking European official went on to say that such an impact, if it were to happen, will be "a fleeting flash in the pan."

In an effort to explain away this line of reasoning, Mr. Klein said that unlike the terrorist actions on the Indonesian island of Bali and in the Mombasa Tourist Compound in Kenya, the Madrid attacks did not target tourists. The March 11 bombings in the Spanish capital´s commuter trains killed 190 people and injured over 2,000.