Mardin may not be a match for Spain’s Madrid when it comes to the number of visiting tourists, but the Turkish city with historic sites as beautiful as the ones in the European capital stumbled upon a chance to profit from similar names.

Turkish broadcaster Habertürk reported that a group of Russian tourists were transported to the southeastern Turkish city by mistake recently and apparently enjoyed their brief stay, before resuming their transit to Spain.

The tourists apparently boarded a plane to Madrid from Russia, in a flight arranged by their travel agency but the agency booked a flight to Mardin via Istanbul instead of Madrid. Bekir Falay, a tour operator in Mardin, told the Turkish TV that tourists were "surprised" when they arrived but they spent "a good day." "We provided them with good hospitality and they enjoyed their stopover here," he said.

The resemblance of the names between the two cities is often a source of jokes for Mardin natives and expats who went on to found several amateur sports teams bearing the name "Real Mardin" after the more successful La Liga side.