Costa Cruises, Iberia, and the Community of Madrid have joined forces to offer a travel package that combines some of Costa's finest Mediterranean cruises with a stay in Madrid featuring a variety of leisure, cultural, and culinary activities. They have unveiled an exclusive package that complements the Portuguese travelers' cruise with a stay in Madrid of up to two days.
This way, all passengers arriving from Portugal can fly with Iberia to Madrid from any of the airline's destinations in Portugal and enjoy a two-day layover in the capital before taking another flight to connect with their Costa in the Mediterranean. Travelers can then connect, via Madrid, to the Costa neoRiviera departing from Tarragona, the Costa Diadema departing from Barcelona, and the Costa Deliziosa, whose itineraries depart from the Italian city of Bari.
At the presentation of the agreement in Lisbon, Raffaele D'Ambrosio, Managing Director of Costa Cruises for Spain and Portugal, highlighted the importance of this new experience. “We are delighted that, for the first time, we can offer all Portuguese passengers an option that complements our best cruises. Thanks to the collaboration with the Community of Madrid and Iberia, passengers from Portugal can now connect more easily with our cruises and also enjoy a stay in Madrid, a top-tier cultural, gastronomic, and leisure destination. This agreement undoubtedly reinforces our commitment to offering a unique travel experience to our guests.”
The Director General of Tourism, Carlos Chaguaceda, pointed out that there are more than 22 million cruise tourists worldwide, and eight million of them visited Spain in 2016, making it the second most popular cruise destination in Europe. “This market represents a significant niche of high-value-added, quality tourism that generates a substantial economic impact in the region, and we must explore it,” he added.
Chaguaceda emphasized that, in accordance with the guidelines set by the Community of Madrid's Tourism Strategy, the aim is to find new products that expand the region's already diverse offerings, provide added value, and attract tourists with greater spending power, generating employment and wealth.
“Ultimately, what we are aiming for is to attract more high-quality tourism that spends more nights in the region and spends more on the various leisure, cultural and gastronomic offerings, among others, that we provide,” he concluded.
For her part, Celia Muñoz, Iberia's Sales Manager for EMEA and Asia, states: “Portugal is one of the countries that best connects with our network of destinations. We offer 126 weekly flights from Lisbon and Porto to Madrid, in addition to flights from Faro and Funchal during the summer months. This new option allows our customers to personalize and complete their trip with a stay in Madrid, a region that has so much to offer.”
