The official took office as the new Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism
The Bogotá industrial engineer with a master's degree in economics, writer, academic and researcher Darío Germán Umaña Mendoza, was sworn in before President Gustavo Petro Urrego as the new Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
Umaña Mendoza graduated as an industrial engineer from the University of America Foundation and has a Master's degree in Economics with a focus on Planning from the National University of Colombia and courses on Training Centers and Business Consulting from the León A. Bekaert Fund in Brussels. , Belgium.
His professional career includes the coordination of the General Secretariat of the Andean Community and the FTAA negotiations, as well as the direction of the Colombian Economic and Commercial Office before the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Between 1998 and 2002 he was unit director at the then Ministry of Foreign Trade, predecessor of the current Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
He has been a consultant and researcher for numerous national and international intergovernmental and private institutions, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Mayor's Office of Bogotá, General Motors, Sena , Comptroller and Acesco, among others.
He was a union director of the leather industry sector, vice president of Fedemetal and executive president of the Colombo-Venezuelan Chamber, a position he had been holding since 2015 until now.
In the academic world, he has stood out as a researcher on topics related to economic theory, international trade, free trade agreements and integration, which is reflected in the publication of more than 10 books, as well as several articles in specialized magazines. He was also a columnist for the Portafolio newspaper, among other important media outlets.
He held the positions of Vice Chancellor of the National University, Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the same institution and of the Faculty of Administrative, Economic and Accounting Sciences of the Central University; and the direction of the Research Center for Development, CID, attached to the National University.
Additionally, he has been a professor at the National University of Colombia, Externado, Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Libre de Colombia, and Cooperativa Indesco.
Positive context
International arrivals to the country multiplied compared to the same period in 2021. With this figure, Colombia recovers 88.2% of the international tourist activity it had before the pandemic, in terms of receptive tourism.
International tourism in Colombia continues to show evidence of continued growth, after the global slowdown in 2020. According to data from Migración Colombia, with analysis by ProColombia, in the first half of 2022 (January – June) 1,955,539 entered the country non-resident visitors, which represents a growth of 218.7% compared to the same period of the previous year.
This result, compared to 2019, the reference year for the sector prior to the pandemic, represents a recovery of 88.2% of the inbound tourism that the country had before the global closures to contain Covid-19, given that, in the In the first half of that year, 2.2 million visitors entered the country.
“Tourism has been, by 2021, the first non-mining-energy line in foreign exchange generation and has all the potential to be the most relevant in the national economy for this purpose. The good results that we have been obtaining, in terms of international arrivals, capacity and air connectivity, are an excellent platform to promote the plan to strengthen this sector proposed by the National Government, which is projecting tourism as a pillar of economic transformation and production of the country,” said Gilberto Salcedo, vice president of tourism for ProColombia.
The main source countries of tourists in the first half of the year were the United States, which participates with 49.5%; Mexico, with 11.5%; Chile, with 10%; and Ecuador, with 9.5%. From Europe, the country that contributes the largest number of travelers is Spain, with a participation of 5.8% of the total.
As for national destinations, the cities that lead the number of arrivals, according to data from Migración Colombia, are Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Cali, totaling nearly 1,080,000 visitors from abroad. The growth of destinations such as San Andrés (540.8% compared to 2021), Santa Marta (345% compared to 2021) and Pereira (168% compared to 2021) stand out.
From the perspective of reasons for travel, 78% of international income to the country corresponds to travelers who expressed reasons for vacations, recreation and leisure; 5.7%, for business and professional reasons; and 9.2%, to other reasons.
According to the international consulting firm ForwardKeys, Colombia is the eighth country with the best tourism recovery figures in the world, based on international air bookings. The same organization has announced that air reservations to Colombia, for the June-August season of this year, exceed the 2021 record by 148%. This represents 98% of the total reached in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic.
To date, 10 cities in the country have direct international connections with 42 international destinations in 26 countries. According to OAG (Official Aviation Guide), Colombia is among the 20 countries with the largest air capacity in the world, and in Latin America it is the third country, after Brazil and Mexico.