The Spanish government, LaLiga and the Confederation of Employers and Industries of Spain (CEOE) have come together in a bid to boost and promote Spain as a safe destination for tourism and sport in a campaign that will be given considerable visibility domestically and internationally over the remaining 11 rounds of fixtures in LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank.
The "Safe Sport, Safe Tourism" campaign is a joint campaign by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism (via Turespaña), the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport (via CSD – Spanish High Council for Sport) Ministry of Health, the CEOE and LaLiga to boost the tourism and sports industries in Spain, which are both so crucial to the economy and have suffered over the last few months during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tourism industry is vital to Spain. It makes up 12.3% of the country’s GDP and employs 12.7% of the total number of people signed up for social security. Spain is a leading global tourist destination, has been the most competitive country in the world since 2015, according to the World Economic Forum, and is ranked second in terms of the number of international visitors and tourism expenditure.
Spanish sport is one of the drivers of Spain’s good reputation abroad because of the level of professionalism and impressive results achieved in terms of management and sporting talent. The considerable financial impact is seen by the fact that several studies have calculated that it makes up 2% of GDP and almost 2.5% of direct, indirect and induced jobs in Spain (Funcas, The Growing Role of Sport in the Economy and Society, 2019).
LaLiga is very well aware of the opportunity and responsibility that it has as an entertainment platform that reaches over 2.7 billion people globally, which is why it will be fully supporting this initiative, whose visibility will be boosted further by a specially created logo.
“Spain is ready to safely welcome international tourists from 1 July. We have thoroughly prepared to ensure we guarantee the highest safety standards across our whole tourism industry by rolling out over 20 uniform protocols for the entire country. We want tourists to feel confident and we are sending out a very clear message that will be amplified by this campaign: Spain is waiting for you,” said Isabel Oliver, the Secretary of State for Tourism.
CSD President Irene Lozano said that she is aware of the effort that LaLiga has put in to ensure the competition can return safely and added that it is “time to savour the restart. A safe return has been outlined, in accordance with a protocol that will allow the competition to start up again successfully. We know that there’s no such thing as a zero-risk but all of us, with our footballers leading the way, are giving our absolute best and acting responsibly and sensibly to ensure everything goes well.”
LaLiga President Javier Tebas admitted that he feels “immensely proud that professional football can keep helping boost Spain’s visibility beyond our borders and help the country’s economy.”
CEOE President Antonio Garamendi spoke about how the campaign “is an unbeatable example of how the public and private sectors can act as one to bring a country together.”