Colombia seeks to attract more visitors from the Middle East and Asia

South American country promoting itself as sustainable tourism destination after overcoming its troubled past

The Getsemani neighbourhood in Cartagena, Colombia's fifth-largest city and a Unesco World Heritage site. Getty Images

Colombia is working to attract more visitors from the Middle East and Asia by increasing its international flight connections, reviewing entry visa requirements and promoting itself as a sustainable tourism destination.

The South American country, which mainly receives tourists from the US and Mexico, is now seeking to draw visitors from further afield, government officials say.

“We are in conversation with the national government to change our visa policies for some Arab countries and for China, for example,” Andreas Santamaria, director of the Instituto Distrital de Turismo (Bogota's tourism board), told The National.

“The main market for us traditionally was North America but now we have to change, we have to seek new markets and new opportunities. Tourism is the door for other things. It's an opportunity for investment, better commerce, events, business.”

The South American country is also undertaking promotional campaigns in key markets around the world to increase the number of international visitors to its capital city of Bogota to three million this year, up from two million in 2023, he said.

“We want to promote Bogota all around the world. We didn't have a big campaign from Bogota before. But now the government of Bogota wants to make a lot of campaigns around the world in different markets, including the Middle East,” Mr Santamaria said.

The tourism board is also working with Bogota's El Dorado International Airport for joint marketing campaigns to attract more passengers to visit the city, rather than just transit through the terminal that handled 40 million passengers last year.

The airport was Latin America's third busiest last year after Mexico City Juarez International and Brazil's Sao Paulo Guarulhos International, according to aviation data firm OAG.

“Most of the passengers don't stop in Bogota and we want them to stop over, we are talking to airline companies to give them the opportunity to tell passengers to stop in Bogota for a few nights,” Mr Santamaria said.

“You do that in Dubai, you do that in Qatar.”

Colombia is also seeking to attract more international airlines to start new flights to the country, after Emirates launched a new Dubai-Bogota route via Miami on June 3. Colombian and UAE citizens can get visa-free entry for up to 90 days in Dubai and Bogota, respectively.

Negotiations are under way with airlines including Australia's Qantas and Air China to serve the Colombian market, Mr Santamaria said.

Colombia is currently served by 29 international airlines connecting it to 29 countries and 52 cities globally, according to data by ProColombia, the government agency responsible for promoting international tourism, trade and investment.

It is the third-largest Latin American country behind Mexico and Brazil in terms of airline seat capacity, with 11 million seats in 2023, an increase of 17.9 per cent on 2022, according to the government data. The country had 64 million flight frequencies in 2023, a rise of nearly 110 per cent from the previous year.

Record year for tourism arrivals

Colombia, the world's second most biodiverse country after Brazil, welcomed a record six million international visitors last year, up 27.5 per cent from 2022, according to ProColombia.

Tourism generated $9 billion in revenue in 2023, up 22.4 per cent on the previous year, making the sector a key contributor to the Colombian economy, the data showed.

Last year, Colombia ranked second globally after the Dominican Republic in terms of the best tourism recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, surpassing 2019 levels for international tourist arrivals by 5 per cent, according to a ForwardKeys Global Travel Trends Report in October 2023.

“This marks a return to growth and a considerable outperformance compared to its peer destinations in South America. This growth is attributable to the country’s improving reputation for tourist safety, paired with relatively high affordability and substantial connectivity improvements,” the report said.

In the first quarter, Colombia recorded a 7.6 per cent year-on-year increase in overseas visitors to 1.6 million, ProColombia data showed.

More than 185,000 foreign passengers have already booked their air tickets to Colombia for the holiday period from June to August, up 7.9 per cent from the same period last year, according to an analysis by ProColombia using ForwardKeys data.

Following an international tourism campaign last year, titled “Colombia, the country of beauty”, cruise ship arrivals to the country increased 151 per cent and cruise passengers arrivals rose 346 per cent annually.

Corporate travellers also increased 32 per cent year-on-year to 220,000 in 2023.

UAE and Middle East visitors

The US remains the top source market for travellers to Colombia, with a 25 per cent share of the total and arrivals of more than 1.5 million in 2023 (including 1.08 million non-resident foreigners and 426,000 Colombian residents living abroad in the US), ProColombia data showed.

The UAE ranked as the second country in the Middle East, after Israel, for travellers to Colombia last year.

Just over 104,000 travellers from the Middle East arrived in the country last year, an increase of 45 per cent year-on-year.

Of these, roughly 18,650 were visitors from Israel and 677 were from the UAE – a 45 per cent increase on the year before, followed by 357 from Saudi Arabia and 988 from other Arab countries.

The main city destinations for UAE visitors were Bogota, Medellin, Cartagena and Cali.

While the number of UAE arrivals are small, the Emirates flight to Bogota is expected to help increase the levels significantly, ProColombia officials said, without providing a growth target.

“We have great expectations of these flights to connect the Middle East and Colombia through Miami for the first time,” said Gilberto Salcedo Ribero, vice president of tourism at ProColombia.

In 2023, departures of Colombians to the UAE reached 5,090, compared to a record of 8,213 in the year before.

Nature is the 'new luxury'

Colombia is divided into six diverse regions ranging from the pristine beaches of the Caribbean Sea, coffee-growing plantations, Amazonian rainforests, Andes mountains and Orinoco river plains.

“We want to show Colombia in the different markets as a sustainable and high-quality destination. Right now, we're promoting Colombia as six different countries in one, we have natural and cultural diversity,” Mr Ribero told The National.

“Colombia has been working towards establishing itself as a sustainable and high-quality destination. Colombia is a competitive country in tourism. The tourism should benefit not only travellers, but also our companies, the environment and the economy.”

With 311 biodiverse ecosystems, Colombia is keen to showcase its natural beauty to tourists in a responsible manner, government officials said. With a year-round tropical climate, the country boasts snow-capped mountains, three deserts, 36 moors, three mountain ranges, two oceans and more than 3,800km of coastline.

“The nature and biodiversity that we offer in the country is the new luxury. The UAE focuses on luxury in real estate developments or hotels but we want to show that it's a luxury to see the different indigenous communities and to connect with nature,” Mr Ribero said.

Safety considerations

Colombia is positioning itself as an eco-friendly tourist destination in a bid to attract foreign visitors after about six decades of armed conflict had limited its tourism sector's growth.

Government officials acknowledge the country's troubled past but say that improved security and a competitive tourist offering is helping to propel the tourism industry.

“We are a better country now, we are a safer country than before. We had problems in the past, it's true, but Colombia now has changed and it's an amazing opportunity for tourists. There's nature, shopping, culture, entertainment, sports, gastronomy,” Mr Santamaria said.

“We had last year in Colombia almost six million tourists, so we are not bad compared to other countries in Latin America. We didn't have tourists 10 years ago, so things are changing.”

The country is not shying away from its troubled past and sees tourism as a way to reinvent its major cities.

A case in point is the north-western city of Medellin, once dubbed the murder capital of the world. It is now experiencing a tourism boom, and in 2013, was named the world's most innovative city in a competition organised by the non-profit Urban Land Institute.

“The security issues in the past are part of our history. Tourism gives new meaning to this past. Medellin was the narcotics capital of the world, and then, it became the world's most innovative city,” Mr Ribero said.

“Part of our narrative is how we can change the history of the country that was [marked by] violence and is now immersed in tourism and business. We are not ashamed of this past. We look at tourism as an approach to these issues.”

From government officials to hoteliers and business owners, there is a keen interest in showcasing Colombia's diverse attractions to new markets in the Middle East.

Cartagena, Colombia's fifth-biggest city and a tourism hotspot, with its cobbled streets and colonial squares, is already preparing to attract more visitors from the Middle East.

“After the Emirates flight, it is a great opportunity for us as a Caribbean destination. We have not yet connected to that part of the world, so for us it means there's a lot of opportunity to get to know the market," Cartagena tourism board president Liliana Rodriguez told The National.