New York City Tourism Partners with Madrid, Viva Tours

NYC & Company was joined by Madrid Tourist Board Chief Executive Pablo Bautista and General Manager of Viva Tours Enrique Martin-Ambrosio to announce a new partnership to boost travel to New York City in 2009.

Inside the salon of the Casino de Madrid, NYC & Company, Viva Tours and the City of Madrid announced a new $1.7 million outdoor advertising campaign that will drive tourism to New York City from Spain this year.

With 2,000 posters on display throughout Spain, New York City is promoting the message of value to the city’s fifth-largest overseas market. In addition, New York City tourism officials traveled to Madrid to communicate that the city is safe to visit despite health concerns and to urge travelers not to cancel their future travel plans to the nation’s largest city.

Fifty-eight percent of all travelers from Spain to the United States visit New York City. Last year, the city welcomed a projected 382,000 visitors, a 20 percent increase over the previous year.

Spanish visitors collectively spent an estimated $389 million in 2008. Travelers from Spain stay on average more than six nights and enjoy shopping and dining out as their top two activities. Eighty-four percent who visit New York City come for leisure purposes and 84 percent stay in hotels.

The New York City ads appear on street furniture throughout Spain in cities such as Madrid, Bilbao, Barcelona, Seville and more. The posters promote the city’s new Real Deal promotion, which offers discounts at the city’s hotels, attractions, cultural organizations, shows, tours, and more; and the new Rainbow Pilgrimage campaign, a yearlong initiative to boost gay travel to New York City in 2009 during the 40th anniversary year of the Stonewall Rebellion, the birthplace of the modern Gay Rights Movement.

The ads launched on April 20 and will be in place until early June. As part of the promotion, Viva Tours is offering Spanish consumers a five-day package from 749 euros, which includes air, hotel and transfers from Spain to New York City. The prices are valid through June 19. Viva Tours travel packages can be booked by Spanish consumers through a local travel agent.