The president of the CEIM employers’ association points out that these two cities “together” represent an “unbeatable offer in the world”
The presidents of the employer associations of Madrid (CEIM) and of Catalonia (Foment), Miguel Garrido and Josep Sanchez Llibrerespectively, have agreed to join forces with the aim of leading tourism internationally cultural, gastronomic and commercial.
This was expressed during the opening of the ‘Madrid Barcelona Tourist Meeting’ held this Thursday in the capital, which was also attended, in addition to representatives of museums, chefs or hotel associations, the former mayors of both cities Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Jordi Hereu.
Garrido has pointed out that these two cities “together” suppose an “unbeatable offer in the world” and although he has recognized that businessmen are used to competing with what he considers “enriching”, he has advocated in this circumstance for “collaborating”.
In this sense, he has also called on public administrations to collaborate in tourism promotion campaigns to have “more strength”.
The president of the Catalan employers association, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who has announced that the meeting will be repeated in Barcelona in the second half of 2022, has indicated that through very important strategic alliances in cultural, tourist and gastronomic issues, Both cities can lead the internationalization of companies in the world.
Reinforce this strategy
He has also called for public administrations to reinforce this leadership strategy because “there are no two examples in the world” “more significant” to develop this tourism leadership than Madrid and Barcelona.
During the dialogue between the former mayors of both cities, Ruiz Gallardón stated that Madrid is a “reality built from the top down” through a decision of the administrative power, while Barcelona is a reality built from “bottom up” through of civil society, which is important to understand in order to know “what we are dealing with”.
In this sense, he pointed out that “the paradox” is that Madrid has begun to become the “great reality that it is now” when it has “shed the weight of the Administrations” since its “political decentralization has favored it”.
He has pointed out that when the State “loses that strength” that it “eclipses” civil society and its businessmen arise, which is what the growth of Madrid has achieved in this case.
“What we administrations can do best is not to get in the way, because when we are very strong, powerful and very present, what we do is obstruct the creative, creative and promotional capacity that is represented by the business world”, he stated.
For this reason, he has said that in order to compete with the large spaces in the tourism, commerce and gastronomy sector, opportunities must be “added”, which will lead to multiplying them, in this case he has called for presenting to the world an offer that groups ” the best” of the two realities of these very different and “complementary” cities.
“We did not imagine what a joint Barcelona-Madrid promotion campaign would mean, what it would surprise and what it would also mean (…) we are not aware of the lesson that this would mean for many short-sighted and short-sighted views,” he said. abounded
Gallardón has also openly supported the expansion of El Prat airport, since it is necessary to have “two huge international airports in Spain” to promote this “internationalization”.
The former mayor of Barcelona Jordi Hereu, who “in case there was any doubt” has also opted for this expansion of the Catalan airport, has also supported the generation of this “joint” product, which responds to a “need”.
He has also advocated explaining the dualities of cities with different origins but that “complement”and has called for capturing “long-haul” tourism because “at least it spends more than twice the average.”
The employers are “forgotten” by the Government
The presidents of both employer associations have taken the opportunity to denounce that the Government has forgotten the “real productive economy” with the measures announced by the president, Pedro Sánchez, in the debate on the State of the Nation.
According to Garrido, the measures announced by Sánchez, who does not believe that they will “be of much use”, worried the Madrid employers because it was perceived in the justification for these measures that there was a “criminalization” of business profits.
For his part, the president of the Catalan employers’ association has indicated that the “greatly forgotten” during the debate on the State of the Nation is “the real productive economy”, for which he has called for it to be defended throughout Spain.
In any case, the president of the Catalan employers’ association has pointed out that the Lehman Brothers crisis, the covid, or the current economic situation caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has caused more inequalities, and has said that the actions of businessmen it is definitive to distribute the benefits “equally”.
It has highlighted the role of companies to reinforce “Spanish social cohesion”, because otherwise “populism arises”.