Madrid’s economic vitality is on a level that few other cities can claim to match. The city’s enviable commercial conditions, which include its excellent infrastructure, modern congress facilities, specialist services and an exemplary selection of hotels, make it the ideal location for hosting professional meetings, conferences, conventions and incentive trips.
However, it is not merely the city’s material advantages that give it such a strong footing as a leading meetings and events destination: Madrid’s capacity for offering both business and leisure sets the city far ahead of the rest, signalling its conviction that work and play are complementary concepts, rather than mutually exclusive ones.
Madrid’s capacity for offering both business and leisure sets the city far ahead of
the rest
International gateway
With over one million business travellers visiting the city every year, Madrid acts as a gateway of sorts between Europe and South America, making it one of the busiest commercial hubs in the world. The city also has the potential to become the continent’s primary gateway to North America, with Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport currently offering direct flights to 200 destinations across the globe. Additionally, the city boasts a modern urban and intercity public transport network, offering more high-speed rail links than any other European capital. This extensive high-speed train network, which covers more than 2,600km across 80 destinations from Madrid to the rest of Spain, makes travelling in and around the city quick and convenient.
Madrid offers 242 hotels across the three-, four- and five-star categories, giving the city a capacity of more than 42,000 beds and the region as a whole a capacity of over 81,000. What’s more, the city prides itself on offering a highly competitive quality to price ratio, ensuring that business and leisure travellers with any kind of budget can find a welcoming room in the city.
Endless options
If Madrid is to be given a single defining feature, however, it must be its determination to make meetings and conferences a truly enjoyable experience. In this city, the line separating the corporate and leisure spheres is deliberately blurred, making it possible to close business deals and hold meetings while enjoying the city’s unbeatable food, entertainment and culture at the same time: the kilometre-long Art Walk, which is home to three of the world’s finest art galleries – the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía – receives more than seven million visitors every year.
In 2013, the Globe Shopper Index ranked Madrid as the second best city in Europe for shopping. Given its variety of world-class retailers and boutique stores, shopping in Madrid is certainly a tempting option – visitors will find products for every taste and every price range, with shops ranging from the most avant-garde establishments to traditional boutiques in the oldest parts of town.
Perfect climate
With almost 3,000 hours of sunlight every year, Madrid is a bright and welcoming city. Dozens of parks are scattered throughout it, which couple with the city’s beautiful Mediterranean climate to create one of Europe’s healthiest and most pleasant environments, as well as one of the greenest cities on the continent.
Madrid is also the only city in the world located within 100km of six UNESCO World Heritage sites – Toledo, Ávila, Segovia, Alcalá de Henares, El Escorial and Aranjuez. These historical sites blend seamlessly with the city’s modern infrastructure, cutting-edge facilities and devoted professionals to create an environment that offers culture, beauty, an exceptional quality of living, and a multicultural ambience that permeates through all aspects of daily life – a unique combination that creates the perfect fusion between business and leisure that the city prides itself on.
For further information email info.mcb@esmadrid.com, or visit www.esmadrid.com/mcb
