Alicante and Elche will hold the first marathon between two cities in February 2025

“The presentation of both events is a historic event that shows that when there is will, great things can be achieved that will benefit both Alicante and Elche, as well as the province as a whole,” said Luis Barcala, mayor of Alicante. «This change in our strategy is starting to bear fruit “And in this direction we will continue to work to promote the second most important population axis of the Valencian Community,” he added.

Elche mayor Pablo Ruz stated: “IBoth municipalities believe in the real possibility of complementing efforts, resources and means To promote and market tourism products to deseasonalize tourism demand, where each contributes a complementary value to the other. And “together we are stronger, we have the capacity to complement each other to attract more visitors and create new opportunities,” he assured.

Since the first contact between the municipal administrations took place in September, several coordination meetings have been held between the fields of Tourism and Sport with the aim of carrying out specific actions between Alicante and Elche. These are the first actions, but they will not be the only ones and they will not be reduced to the field of tourism. Synergies that will benefit both will also be promoted in other areas such as transport, logistics and industrial land, among others.

Alicante and Elche will symbolically come together in a marathon that will complete the calendar of such events. There have been 28 tests of this legendary distance of 42 kilometers on national territory, and none in the province of Alicante so far. Testing will take place in February 2025. The test will start from Elche and reach the finish line in Alicante. Marathon will also cooperate Alicante Provincial Councile and the organization will be responsible for: Montemar Athletic Clubespecially José Manuel Albentosa, former Olympian who, among other achievements, holds the record for victory in the Elche half marathon, the oldest half marathon in the world. Both municipal councils will continue their work on technical, organizational and promotional issues in cooperation with the Provincial Council. For the latter, the Tourism Departments will be responsible for creating tourist packages and designing promotional activities for the test to ensure that the test has the maximum possible impact on the two cities.

sports tourism is experiencing constant growth. According to INE data, more than 5.1 million trips with sport as the main motivation were initiated in 2022, creating a total expenditure of over 2,450 million euros.

MICE and the Forum event will share a headquarters in Alicante and Elche, which are joint candidates to host in March 2025. This is a “congress of congresses”, that is, an important meeting of the MICE tourism segment (congresses, meetings, events and incentives).

MICE & FORUM is the reference workshop or working meeting in Spain for the corporate events segment. Its aim is to provide leading Spanish companies and agencies with first-hand information on the best venues and suppliers to hold their future corporate events. The event offers the opportunity to gather 35 qualified buyers from the main Spanish companies and agencies organizing corporate events and incentive trips, who will get to know and benefit from the facilities and services of the Elche and Alicante destinations, and at the same time position both cities as corporate headquarters. Events between Spain’s most relevant companies and agencies. MICE & FORUM represents the opportunity to host 2,450 meetings in Alicante and Elche with the participation of 35 company and agency representatives as well as 70 suppliers.