People enjoy dancing at the Citadel Park in Barcelona, Spain, June 26, 2021. Starting from Saturday, the obligation to wear face masks outdoors is lifted in Spain, as long as people keep a social distance of 1.5 meters.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

A ferris wheel is seen at Tibidabo Amusement Park in Barcelona, Spain, May 20, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

Spectators wait to enter the Las-Ventas bullring in Madrid, Spain, on May 2, 2021. The Las-Ventas bullring on Sunday held its first bullfight since October 2019, with a limit of 6,000 spectators.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

People have fun at a beach in Barcelona, Spain, on June 23, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Madrid and Barcelona, Spain's two largest cities, have launched promotion campaigns to lure back international tourists now that the health restrictions in the country are being relaxed.

"If life were a city, it'd be Madrid" and "Barcelona like never before" are the slogans of the two campaigns aimed at reactivating tourism after over a year of mobility restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaigns come with lively promotional videos running in Spanish and English that highlight some of the unique attractions of each city. The Barcelona video is a montage showing visitors enjoying different aspects of the city, while the Madrid video proposes ten activities there.

"We are making an effort to communicate all of the advantages offered by Madrid, which is one of the best cities to enjoy in the world and which has an incredible quality of life," Ana Alemany, head of the Madrid Promotion and Brand Service, told Xinhua.

With restrictions on international visitors coming to Spain removed on June 7 and the obligation to wear face masks in outdoor spaces scrapped on Saturday, the campaigns focus on some of the cities' strongest selling points for international visitors.

"Barcelona is one of the most important and relevant destinations in the world," Marian Muro, director of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, told Xinhua. "Barcelona is a 'cool' city and so people want to visit it. It is also a clear exponent of a Mediterranean city with a rich culture and gastronomy." 

Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for seven percent of Madrid's annual gross domestic product (GDP), according to the regional authority, while the Barcelona City Council estimated that tourism made up 12 percent of the city's GDP.

Exceltur, the Alliance for Excellency in Tourism that represents many of Spain's largest tourism companies, has recently forecast that this summer the country will recover over 70 percent of the tourist activity registered in 2019, which was a record year for the sector.

Starting from June 7, international travellers who have undergone the vaccination process using one of the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), or those with a negative certificate of a Diagnostic Test of Active Infection or a certificate of Recovery after having passed this disease, are allowed entry to Spain.