‘Madrid A 7-Star Destination’ event highlights growth in tourism from India market

The Cámara Madrid, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Services of Madrid, successfully hosted the ‘Madrid A 7-Star Destination’ evening in Mumbai on November 26, 2024. The event, which attracted a strong turnout from India’s travel trade fraternity and media, celebrated Madrid’s growing popularity as a premier destination for Indian tourists.

Madrid has become a favorite among Indian travellers, with the Community of Madrid witnessing a 73 per cent increase in visitors from India in 2023. A total of 57,435 Indian tourists visited Madrid, marking an 18 per cent rise compared to pre-pandemic figures from 2019. Indian visitors accounted for nearly 67,435 of the 250,000 tourists to the region, underlining their growing enthusiasm for Madrid’s unique offerings.

The reason is that Madrid has an offer that is especially attractive for Indian visitors, who see their main motivations for visiting us satisfied: culture, sustainability and the safety of the destination. Indian tourists have a high cultural level and like to travel with their families to safe destinations.

Popular tourism products for the Indian market include gastronomy, luxury and shopping, art and culture, and MICE travel. Everything that the Indian tourist expects from Europe fits perfectly with what the Community of Madrid offers and ensures that the exponential growth continues, particularly among upper-middle class tourists, who are very interested in shopping tourism, urban destinations and high-end shopping and with a growing curiosity about Spain.

This growing love story between India and Madrid continues in 2024, in view of the provisional figures. This is also the opinion of the latest study by Oxford Economics, which confirms estimates of a steady rise in spending over the next few years, with growth rates of 13.6 per cent and 12.5 per cent for the years 2024 and 2025 respectively. To give us an idea, Indian tourists spend an average of 2,430 euros per person in Spain, which is 408 euros per day, with an average stay of 6 days. The total expenditure of Indians in Spain was 584.8 million euros in 2023, with an increase of 67 per cent compared to 2022 and 48 per cent compared to 2019.

All these reasons have led the Community of Madrid to reach its all-time high in visitors: 7.8 million in 2023, 1.7 million more visitors than in the previous year. Although this increase is extraordinary and reaches almost 30 per cent, it falls far short of the 73 per cent increase in Indian tourists mentioned. The forecasts for 2024 are also for growth. Between January and June, the region received 4.4 million foreign tourists, representing a 17 per cent growth.

The reasons for these increases include the opening of commercial flights from India at the end of March 2022, and the simplification in 2020 of visa application requirements, which reduced the processing period to 4 working days on average. Finally, Turespaña has pointed out another curious cause of India’s interest in Spain: the great success of the Bollywood film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, released in 2011 and shot in Spain.