An area better known for its budget hostels, tacky souvenir shops and car-choked roads now had wider pavements, pedestrianised zones, and streets that Madrid's town hall says are safer and cleaner.
"We chose Madrid because it has been underrepresented in the luxury segment for years," said Richard Brekelmans, Marriott’s vice president for Southern Europe, citing the city's abundance of art museums, theatres and restaurants as its main draw. The city has 33 new hotels in the pipeline, half of them in the upscale segment, compared with 13 projects in Barcelona, consultancy firm Colliers said in another report. Madrid's hotel investment came to a record 802 million euros in 2022, three times that of Barcelona, it found.
Alejandro Pitashny, an Argentine investor, has opened four restaurants in the Spanish capital since 2018. He has also invested in luxury short-rental apartments and is seeking to buy a hotel this year in the city.Wealthy Americans are joining Latin Americans in including Madrid as part of their European travels, managers said. The number of U.S. visitors to Spain increased 25% in April compared with the same month in 2019, official data show.
Airlines are also catching on. Spain's Iberia expanded its flights to the U.S. and Latin America this summer by 15% compared with 2019, while Air China