A poster on the tube caught my eye and it mentioned some thing called the Stadiums of Happiness and the Canary Islands. Intrigued I checked it out online and saw that the Canary Islands Government had launched a campaign to attract visitors from the UK, Spain and Germany. The Stadiums of Happiness in this case where the football stadiums: the Emirates Stadium, the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and the Alliance Arena in Munich.

As I had an afternoon free today I decided to check out the Emirates Stadium to see what it was all about. It was clear that the campaign had not received enough publicity as I was only one of about five visitors. I felt a bit sorry for the employees working the stands that day as they must have been a bit bored! They were very friendly though and encouraging all visitors to try out the cool toys.

The area was set out like the Canary Islands with little information counters representing the different islands focusing on such topics as the beaches, the volcanoes, conferences etc. but the real interest lay in the things that weren’t really anything much to do with the Canary Islands though they found a way to link it as follows:

Relaxation unit. The relaxation unit had the “Medyjet Massage” system. The link was that by lying on the bed you could sample the relaxing feel of the Canary Islands. The “Medyjet Massage” is a bed that you lay on (clothes on) which massages your body using jets of warm water. It was amazing – I could have lain there all day. When I got up I felt so relaxed I could barely stand!

Food tasting unit. This are consisted of small samples of juices (all produced from the natural fruits of the Canary Islands.)

Leisure and virtual activities area. In this area they had a virtual hang glider (you sit in a hang glider seat and don a pair of glasses which takes you on a “virtual” flight over the canary islands, jet ski simulators and even a windsurfing simulator.

It was fun to play around but I think that as there weren’t many visitors the employees weren’t really pushing the Canary Islands as a destination. As I said earlier they were mainly just encouraging us to have a play around!