Within the framework of the IMEX in Frankfurt 2023 international fair, dedicated especially to MICE tourism, Travel2latam spoke with representatives of the sector at PROCOLOMBIA; Maria Oriani, Manager of Meetings Tourism, and Jewgeni Patrouchev , Senior Representative of Tourism and MICE Central and Eastern Europe.
Which are the countries that are most attentive to Colombia's proposal regarding the MICE sector?
The strongest countries at the moment are Germany and the Netherlands. We have seen in the past that Poland is one of the fastest growing markets in the segment and that the products that are increasing the most are incentive trips. A big trend is also to extend the trip, that is, hold an event and stay a few more days to enjoy.
From the point of view of interest to other countries, what are they doing to promote themselves?
For the MICE segment it is very important to show the offer of Colombia because it is a new country for many. We see that incentive agencies and clients are looking for new destinations, and that is why training is carried out for these incentive houses in different innovation events. In addition, we choose a high-level brand and invite the incentive houses to the headquarters of that brand and we make different stations such as Bogotá and Cartagena, we present the destinations of Colombia and that is a form of training that we are doing. We also bring an innovative and different fun trip to various agencies in Colombia so that they know our destinations, it is a process in which they have to register and receive training before going, and after the trip we follow up until they have their first event in Colombia.
What are the main points of interest in Colombia?
In this industry what the markets are looking for is the new, then sustainability and thirdly the "people to people", and we are working on all of this. The best thing that Colombia has is the people, Colombia is authentic because of the Colombians. In addition, we do not want them to come for a few nights, but to know the attractions and to return, that is why we focus on providing authentic events so that the agency and the client are so satisfied that they recommend and promote the destination to another client and so it multiplies.
What is the current situation in the holiday area?
We say "Welcome to South America in one country" because Colombia has everything. The only thing it doesn't have is skiing as a product, but there is snow. We are the second most important biodiversity destination worldwide. And if we talk about markets, in 2010 in Germany there were only 19 tour operators that had Colombia in their portfolio and now there are more than 120, so we tripled the number of tourist travelers and also have a network of 30,000 travel agents.
Colombia is a product that end customers traditionally book through a travel agency because it is complex, since one does not know and wants to understand what the product is, what the destination is, and that is why advice from a travel agent is needed. travel, that is why it is very important for us to continue training. Every year we train between 1,000 and 3,000 travel agents personally and we also take travel agents to Colombia, for example, last year 100 agents visited us from Germany.
What about the Eastern European countries?
We are working a lot with our embassies doing different promotional events. In Germany in 2019 we had 79,000 travelers and last year 58,000, but only 5,500 from Poland, that is, it is another figure, but let's remember that there is no direct airline frequency from Poland, unlike Frankfurt, where there are.
What is the promotion for events and how much do you have per year?
Last year we held 30 face-to-face events to promote the destination, but we also work for end customers together with brands that have nothing to do with tourism; strong and well-known brands worldwide to join forces. We worked in Switzerland with a brand that sells outdoor clothing and we did a photoshoot for its new catalog in Colombia and we generated a promotion for half a year, this obviously helped us grow, and the flow of travelers increased by more than 10%.
What is the main market in Colombia?
In Europe, Germany is the largest market and the second is the Netherlands, one of the markets that grew the most last year, in fact, it exceeds the number of tourists we receive from the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the market that responds the least is Eastern Europe, without going into detail, but within the region, the most active market is Poland, where we actively work on promotion.
And our main market when we talk globally towards Colombia is the United States, although the United States was generating almost 50% of non-resident passenger traffic to Colombia, today we are close to 28%. So we can say that there is a more equitable distribution, so we do not depend so much on a single market, but Mexico, for example, is also very important for us and Latin America due to its proximity.
What destination has everything you need for meeting events?
The main regions that have always been characterized by receiving events are Bogotá, Cartagena and Medellín as the main cities, since they are the ones that hold the largest number of events in the year. But unlike many countries, our concentration is not in the capital, we have the Atlantic Coast where Cartagena, Santa Marta, Barranquilla are, which stand out as cities with the right infrastructure to receive meetings; then we have the Coffee Cultural Landscape, and the part of Santander that has infrastructure for sporting events. We also have other venues for slightly smaller events, which still lend themselves to MICE tourism, such as Cali in the Pacific which is the fourth or fifth largest city in Colombia.
So Colombia is characterized by a great diversity of cities that in turn allow having a diversity of experiences and traditional and non-traditional venues, which is part of one of the competitive advantages we have, where we not only hold events, but also We have botanical gardens, museums and coffee farms where experiences are carried out.
What is the connectivity situation in Colombia?
We have 11 cities within Colombia that connect with international flights that do not depend on internal traffic, which is also decentralized. This means that it is not only Bogotá that passengers arrive to, and although Bogotá is an important connection center, the fact of having 11 cities that receive international flights means that we really have passengers arriving from all over the world with total ease.
Those 11 destinations in Colombia have connectivity with 26 countries in the world and 45 international cities, 1,137 weekly frequencies that are 112% more than we had before the pandemic and 120% more weekly seats than we had in 2019. So there has been great growth and in fact we have frequencies with new lines that we did not have at that time, which allows us to increase routes and generate great opening opportunities in the Colombian market.