ITB Berlin: Partner cities Berlin and Madrid agree on tourism cooperation

Berlin, 6 March 2014 Berlin and Madrid are expanding their partnership to include collaboration in tourism marketing. The cooperation agreement between the tourism marketing companies for the two partner cities was signed yesterday. Maria del Mar de Miguel Colom, CEO of Madrid Destino Cultura Turismo y Negocio S.A., and Burkhard Kieker, CEO of visitBerlin signed the agreement with Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and Madrid Mayor Ana Botella Serrano looking on.

Wowereit commented, "The agreement between Berlin and Madrid to cooperate in marketing tourism is an important step in the partnership between the two European capitals. The focus of the collaboration will be the exchange of experience and expertise between the tourism marketing companies and especially joint advertising for cultural events and facilities as well as for leisure, shopping and restaurants in both cities. We want to inspire Berliners to visit our sister city Madrid and we look forward to welcoming our guests from Madrid."

In 2013, over 200,000 Spanish tourists visited Berlin, making up 5.2 per cent of all visitors to the German capital.



visitBerlin CEO Burkhard Kieker comments: "The cooperation agreement will be the basis for a close partnership in tourism marketing to bring more visitors to both Berlin and Madrid. We want to take advantage of synergies and jointly market our cities and Europe in general to international audiences."

The agreement was signed as part of the opening tour of the 48th ITB Berlin at the visitBerlin stand in Hall 12 next to an original piece of the Berlin Wall.

Last year, Berlin and Madrid celebrated the 25th anniversary of the cities' partnership agreement. This had already set the framework for cooperation in promoting tourism. The agreement was signed in Madrid on 4 November 1988 by Eberhard Diepgen and Juan Barranco Gallardo, the mayors of the two cities at the time. More information can be found online.

For more information about visitBerlin's presence at ITB and images, go to press.visitBerlin.de.