they do make Madrid look good, no?

Iker found time to change clothes between his previous commitment and this!  And are Sergio and Mesut wearing the same shoes?

Real Madrid; the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce; the Comunidad de Madrid; and the Madrid City Hall have teamed up to promote Spain and Madrid as tourist destinations, under the (very original) slogan of “Visit Spain, Visit Madrid.”  The presentation of the agreement between these entities to work together was held at the Bernabéu yesterday afternoon, in the presence of Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Mesut Özil, Kaká, Karim Benzema and Ángel di María.  These players will take shoot two videos to help promote the city and country (hopefully, they will speak English in them, no?  Fingers crossed for Iker and Sergio).

This three-year long agreement means that (Real) Madrid will use its resources to promote (the city of) Madrid and Spain as tourist destinations around the world.  One of the things that they will do is to have the slogan appear before games on the electronic ad screens of the stadium, and on the wall surrounding Valdebebas.  We also found out that another thing that Madrid will do to promote the city and country – go on a tour of Asia this summer, with China as a certain destination, since Spain wants to attract one million Chinese tourists by 2020.

During the various speeches at the event, Real Madrid – the club and the team – were called, among other things, “a universal team,” “the best team in the world,” “ambassadors of Spain,” “an icon for all of Spain.”  Madrid will earn €3.3 million from this collaboration.

In 2010, the Comunidad de Madrid received 7.8 million visitors, out of the 53 million tourists that came to Spain.  Out of those 53 million, two million were there to watch sporting events, while another six came to play sports.

Not very many people seemed to be interested/entertained, no?

Just off the top of my head, I can provide several ideas on how to best utilize these boys to get people (or at least females) to come to Madrid and Spain.

ONE. Have Iker, Esteban or Antonio (one of the madrileños) film a spot where they say “there’s plenty more guys like me in Madrid, come visit!”  Xabi can do the one for Spain.

TWO. Have Álvaro, Sergio or one of those with twitter accounts (which now includes El Pirata, as confirmed by Álvaro!!!) tell their followers to come visit Madrid/Spain.  There will definitely be some people who will take this literally.

THREE. Film one of the boys eating jamón while shopping in Zara.  That’s the best of Spain, wrapped up in one tidy package.

FOUR. Open up the training sessions to the public again.

I have plenty more (including some more serious ones), and I’m sure you do too, so share!