Madrid welcomes its visitors and offers tips for a respectful stay. Madrid City Council's Tourism Department is set to release a new publication featuring 17 recommendations which enable people to enjoy the city in a respectful manner and reflect its friendly and welcoming nature. 

Welcome to Madrid is a small guide that the city will begin to distribute tomorrow, on 27 September, coinciding with World Tourism Day. It reminds readers of the desirability of keeping the city clean, using rubbish bins and showing respect for street furniture, as well as the importance of recycling and the responsible consumption of water. It also highlights the need to respect the regulations of establishments that provide accommodation, the advantages of using public transport and bicycles and the quality and benefits of local products. The publication encourages visitors to discover how creative and innovative the city is and to venture outside the city centre to get to know all of its neighbourhoods, showing respect at all times because Madrid is a diverse, tolerant and inclusive destination.

The new material, which will also be distributed at upcoming conferences and activities involving tour operators, is available in Spanish and English and can be downloaded in PDF format from the city of Madrid’s official tourism website, esMADRID.com:https://www.esmadrid.com/sites/default/files/bienvenidos_a_madrid_2018.pdf 

https://www.esmadrid.com/sites/default/files/welcome.pdf 

According to Miguel Sanz, the director of Madrid City Council's Tourism Department, “Madrid is an open, diverse and welcoming city. With this initiative, we want to further encourage a respectful interaction between all of us who live in Madrid and those who visit us. We believe it’s important for our visitors, who come from diverse places and cultures, to know us better”.

Madrid embraces you
The release of this guide is part of the communication campaign launched by the City Council’s Tourism Department in honour of World Tourism Day. The campaign features the city’s new graphic icon, which depicts a hug representing one of Madrid’s hallmarks: its hospitality and its welcoming nature. 

This campaign sends an important welcome message: Madrid is an increasingly green, sustainable and inclusive destination; a friendly city where everyone is welcome and where the warm nature of Madrid’s residents and tourism professionals makes you feel right at home. Madrid embraces you. 

Madrid, headquarters of the UNWTO
Through this initiative, the City Council's Tourism Department also reminds people that for over 40 years Madrid has had the distinction of being the headquarters of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a body specialised in the tourism sector which is recognised at the global level as a key driver of economic, social and cultural development. Madrid is one of the top urban destinations in Spain and Europe, receiving almost ten million visitors per year. It boasts a range of tourist and cultural offerings that’s unique in the world, making it the perfect destination for leisure tourism as well as business tourism, owing to its ability to host major international events. These qualities leave no doubt that it’s the best possible location for the headquarters of this tourism organisation.

Promotion of the campaign
All of the points in the SAIT (Tourist Assistance and Information Services) network run by Madrid City Council's Tourism Department will take part in promoting the campaign, particularly the Plaza Mayor Tourist Information Centre and the Faro de Moncloa observation deck. In addition, to support communication of the initiative a fixed specialised information point has been set up in the arcade in Plaza Mayor, next to the entrance to the tourist information centre. The tourist information points in Callao and Paseo del Prado have been supplemented with additional staff. 

The campaign also has a presence on esMADRID.com (www.esmadrid.com) and on Madrid’s social media profiles on Facebook (@visitamadridoficial) and Twitter (@Visita_Madrid).

Tourism and Digital Transformation
To highlight the opportunities that technological advances and digitalisation present for sustainable tourism development, tomorrow, 27 September, Madrid City Council's Tourism Department and the Spanish Association of Tourism Professionals (AEPT) will hold a meeting aimed at professionals from the tourism sector. The meeting, whose theme is “Tourism and Digital Transformation”, will address the importance of certain tools, such as data intelligence, artificial intelligence and digital platforms, and their incorporation in the tourism sector to drive sustainable, responsible, inclusive and innovative tourism strategies and policies. The meeting will feature a presentation by Juan Carlos Iglesias, who has founded, invested in and is a consultant for tech and artificial intelligence companies in the travel industry./