Madrid and Mastercard join forces to boost the recovery of tourism in Spain’s capital

Madrid City Council and Mastercard have joined forces to boost the recovery of tourism in Spain’s capital.

IN a statement, the city council said “it is a collaborative model, in which Mastercard has made available its analytical capacity and technological tools linked to tourism”.

The authority wants to find out exactly how the pandeic has impacted on tourism “to help design a ‘post-shock’ strategy and, finally, to accelerate the recovery”.

The project was launched in May and, until the end of the year, will continue to “add a layer of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to the decision making process in the tourism field”.

Similar agreements have been made between Mastercard and London and New York.

“This initiative positions the capital as an intelligent and safe destination, with an inclusive and digital tourist offer that is highly valued by national and international tourists,” added Madrid City Council.

According to Mastercard data, the perception of Madrid as a safe destination suffered a big setback at the beginning of State of Alarm; however, this perception has been recovering until reaching the same levels it had in 2019, reports agenttravel.es.

“The public-private partnership becomes even more relevant given that the tourism sector, one of the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, represents seven per cent of the GDP and employs almost 400,000 people, according to the latest data from the City Council,” they added.