In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Gilberto Salcedo, Vice Minister of Tourism of Procolombia.
What is the current situation of the MICE environment in Colombia?
We are on an important path of growth in the MICE industry. By the end of 2023, we had more than 530 major international events. And this year we are also exceeding the goals we are setting for ourselves and obviously this is reflected in what we are seeing in tourism in general in the country.
In fact, we closed 2023 with a total of international travelers close to 6,100,000, which was a growth of almost 30% compared to 2022, which had already been not only a year of full recovery but also of growth. More than 9 billion in foreign currency were generated during 2023.
By 2024, from January to June, there are already more than 3,100,000 international travelers arriving in Colombia. In terms of foreign currency, it is something close to 2.5 billion that has been registered.
And in terms of visitors we are growing by over 8%, almost 9%, and in terms of foreign currency, also 9% by 2024. All this is accompanied by very clear work on the MICE issue, hand in hand with the convention bureaus with whom we have a network in the country and 12 destinations that are fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure.
What infrastructure do you have available to hold this type of event?
Today, Colombia not only has the wonderful option of holding all kinds of events in non-traditional venues, such as the Botero statues in Medellin, the Botanical Gardens in Bogota or the old city of Cartagena, with its world heritage, but we also have competitive prices. Given the devaluation of the currency in recent years, Colombia is presenting itself on the world scene as a very interesting option.
On the one hand, this is due to the accumulation of demand still due to Covid, and secondly, given the accumulation of demand, a surge in prices for holding events at an international level, which makes Colombia an absolutely competitive destination in terms of prices and obviously with a very interesting offer of diverse destinations together with the possibility of holding events in extraordinary places.
What are the most prominent industries in this area?
There are several; part of the work we do with these destinations, with these bureaus, is precisely the search for vocations and trying to connect the vocation that these destinations have with what we are bringing in terms of international events.
For example, in the case of Santander del Sur, it has a very important health cluster, as does Bogotá, where we are focusing on how we can bring health events to those destinations.
What happens with sporting events?
We also host sporting events. I believe that Colombia's experience and tradition in terms of sporting events historically allows it to have important infrastructures in capital cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Bucaramanga, which are also permanently available for agricultural use.
Colombia is a country with a very important agricultural vocation where there is a space for holding this type of event. It is not that we are excluding any event, but rather we are trying to generate added value, a legacy through the knowledge that the meetings industry generates in any part of the world. In this way, local and external interests are united and greater value is generated from the holding of events. Holding an event is not only a logistical issue, but it implies development and knowledge for any destination.
What are the markets that originate these events?
The main markets are the United States, Mexico, and in Europe, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain. Another important market is Colombia. But clearly the United States and Mexico have a very important share.
And what is the reason for this increase?
There are multiple reasons and causes, but we have institutions in the country, which facilitates and allows the simple realization of events in Colombia. Then, the competitiveness in prices that we mentioned above. Third, the connection between the world of the meetings industry with the experiential part of tourism has set a pattern that in Colombia we had already known how to capitalize on before the pandemic, where we dedicated ourselves to creating tourism products that made sense, not only in terms of trends, but also in terms of the experiential and sustainability part.
What are the intermediate cities that are emerging as centers for meeting tourism?
After Bogotá and Medellín, there are cities like Bucaramanga or Barranquilla, which also have a very important infrastructure. In fact, Barranquilla is the most important commercial port in Colombia, it is one of the cities with the highest migration, that is, Dutch, Italian and Syrian-Lebanese migration. It is a city with a tremendously cosmopolitan atmosphere, with very good infrastructure, roads and hotels, and with very convenient surroundings as well, because by car you are an hour and a half from Cartagena and Santa Marta.
Santa Marta is another of those places that is emerging in the meeting tourism scene. Bucaramanga is a city with a coffee axis. The coffee part that is here in the western Colombian Andes, with three very important cities that are Armenia, Quindío and Manizales, has the whole experiential theme of coffee, gastronomy, farms, with many diverse amusement parks, and with venues with the possibility of holding events.
What is the situation regarding leisure travel?
Today we have an offer that is not only marked by the six regions I mentioned earlier, but there is a very segmented promotion for each of the markets. Colombia is fed by 90% of 13 markets at a global level, where in order come the USA, Ecuador, Panama, Mexico and Spain as the five main ones, where today there is also a completely renewed offer, with tourist products in accordance with the demand in the international markets, and where together with the country's entrepreneurs we have been renewing, generating differentiation and new experiences.
Today in Colombia you can go on safaris in the Colombian Orinoquía like those in any African country, you can see the Andean Condor, have experiences with indigenous communities that are the guardians of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and you can enjoy both the beach and the snow. In fact, you can see the perpetual snow from the beach. And there are four communities that inhabit this area of the country, where you can also have experiences learning not only how they live, but also their cosmology and their way of seeing life, which is wonderful.
What is the situation of cruise tourism?
There are two scenarios, one is river cruises and the other is sea cruises. Next year, the Serena ship is scheduled to sail from Colombia to the Caribbean. And then AmaWaterways has a river cruise. They will begin testing on the Magdalena River starting in November of this year, with commercial operations starting in January.
Part of the information we have had is that it is a cruise that already has very good sales performance for the year 2025, it is one that leaves from Barranquilla and Cartagena along the Magdalena River up to the height of an island that is in the middle of the river and in which there is a colonial town called Mompóx, which is a spectacle, with more than seven churches in its old town, with a wonderful history because in colonial times the ships passed through there.
And in terms of cruise passengers, traditional cruises in the Caribbean, we closed the last season with nearly 350,000 cruise passengers arriving in the country, almost double what we achieved the previous season.
It is an activity that generates close to 60 million euros annually for Cartagena alone. In addition, Royal Caribbean currently has a kind of interporting with Panama. And we are constantly promoting this, creating better conditions for the operation.
Are you working on air connectivity?
A lot, in fact it is the first thing in the tourism promotion strategy. Today we have 29 airlines operating in Colombia that are international and that connect with 29 countries, 51 cities abroad and 11 in the USA.
We recently had the arrival of Edelweiss Air, and for the first time we are connecting Switzerland to Colombia. There is a flight leaving from Zurich and connecting Bogotá, Bogotá-Cartagena, Cartagena-Zurich.
In addition, Gol also arrived, connecting not only Sao Paulo with Bogotá, but also covering the Bogotá-Buenos Aires route. And finally, Emirates arrived in Colombia on June 3, connecting Dubai with Miami, Miami and Bogotá, and back Bogotá-Miami, Miami-Dubai. They are flying with a triple seven to Bogotá, with first class, on that route that did not exist and with impressively competitive prices.