MADRID, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Work is underway at the IFEMA exhibition center, northeast of the Spanish capital of Madrid, to prepare for the COP25 Climate Change Conference which will be held from Dec. 2 to 13.
Spain's offer to host the conference arises after Chile's cancellation. Being host of the event means that preparations, which generally take about two years, should now be done in just over two weeks.
The Spanish government estimates it will cost around 60 million euros (66.4 million U.S. dollars) to organize the event, but that hosting the COP25 will have an economic impact of at least 100 million euros for Spain and Madrid thanks to the money spent by delegates in the city and also the publicity the Spanish capital will gain through hosting the event.
Around 25,000 people from across the world will attend the event. It is estimated they will each spend between 200-500 euros a day on hotels, restaurants and travel costs.
The fact the conference overlaps with a holiday weekend in Spain (Puente de la Constitution) means that virtually every room in the city is likely to be occupied.
The hotel and restaurant sector in Madrid hope the event will highlight Madrid's ability to organize major events at short notice.
"The Conference will show the capacity and the quality of the hotels that Madrid and the area have," Mar de Miguel, General Secretary of the Madrid Hotel Association explained in the Expansion newspaper, adding that the capital has around 90,000 hotel rooms.
Meanwhile, work has begun in preparing the six pavilions covering around 100,000 square meters, which will be used at the IFEMA exhibition.
The conference will have two separate areas: the Blue Zone, which will host the multilateral meetings and the pavilions of the various delegations, and a Green Zone, which will provide spaces for dialogue, companies and non-profit organizations.
IFEMA is located around 6 kilometers from Madrid's Barajas airport and served by a metro line, which will take delegates to the city center in just 15 minutes.
