'We have a lot to do to continue growing and competing in tourism'

Last month I was at Fitur, the International Tourism Fair in Spain, and the growth of Latin American destinations is very significant. Although all the pavilions at the fair were full, none were as full as the one in Las Américas. People want to come to our country, to learn about our culture and our products.

This means that we will have a very important tourist showcase, especially considering that in recent years, Colombia has positioned itself as a benchmark in the recovery of the tourism sector. In fact, last year alone, 6.7 million non-resident visitors came to the country.

At the Colombian Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (ANATO), we also measure the success of tourism in the country with the results of the Vitrina. The growth of the event has been exponential in the last fifteen years.

The impetus that the tourism sector has in Colombia. First of all, this sector and the travel agencies have promoted the country, despite the difficulties in recent years, in an exponential way by attending all the international fairs, with the support of ProColombia. The second thing that draws attention is our tourist attractions. Colombia is the most diverse country in the world and has an enormous capacity in all its destinations to offer products and tourist packages that today's traveler likes.

We are full of nature, adventure tourism and bird watching, and that is attractive to people. Third, people are very important. Foreigners like the hospitality of Colombians. National and international connectivity has also grown a lot. We have the possibility of having many flights and airlines operating. This year we plan to start with Qatar Airways, in addition to Emirates, which started last year. We are going to have two very important airlines for connectivity with the Middle East and Asia. The more connectivity we have, the more we can grow and encourage tourism.

This is a specialist trade fair closed to the public, so our aim is not to increase the number of participants, obviously the number of professional visitors has a limit. Despite this, last year we had 50,000 visitors and for this year we expect 5,000 to 4,000 more people, an additional eight percent.

We want to achieve 220,000 business contacts, which represents around 130 million dollars. These are projects that do not materialize immediately, but rather throughout the year.

As this is the first fair to be held in the Americas and the second in the world, after Fitur (International Tourism Fair, held in Madrid), it is an opportunity for travel agencies and operators in the sector to schedule business meetings throughout 2025.

Brazil has been growing in foreign visitors. In 2024, 114,000 Colombians left for Brazil and there was an 18 percent growth in international passenger flights from Brazil, compared to the previous year. Today we have 56 direct weekly frequencies with Avianca and Latam. In addition, San Andrés is an island that receives many Brazilians, and that also made us think that it is a special moment to encourage them to continue coming to this place. Brazil has not been a guest country for many years, the last time was in 2005, so we thought it was appropriate to repeat it.

Santa Marta is very special because it is celebrating its 500th anniversary. It is the first Colombian city to celebrate this milestone. The arrival of foreigners grew by 13 percent by the end of 2024. Likewise, the arrival of passengers on domestic flights increased by 30 percent. We wanted to highlight everything that Santa Marta has to offer: its beaches, culture, gastronomy and, of course, celebrate these 500 years of the city in a big way.