In this context, Travel2latam spoke with José González Jaramillo, Secretary of Tourism and Entertainment of Medellín.
What are your expectations and objectives for participating in FIT in Buenos Aires?
First of all, I am fascinated by trade fairs. I had never been to them before. I have been in the industry for 25 years and I come from the private sector, so I had been to many trade fairs, but I had never been to this one, which fascinates me today.
We have great expectations that today we will have a direct flight from Buenos Aires. And we are convinced that every time an airline offers a direct flight to the city, tourism automatically grows, but one cannot rely on that, because it grows, but if it is not promoted and if there is no one to come and talk to the tour operators, it decreases.
The challenge is to convert that direct flight from Medellin to Buenos Aires into passengers who stay in Medellin. We have to teach the people of Buenos Aires that since they have taken that flight, they should stop in our city and cannot miss out on being in Medellin. Today, people think of Colombia as sun and beach, but it is more than that.
On the other hand, we need businessmen, not only from Argentina, to understand that Medellin is now ready to receive many tourists from a tourist perspective. We have quality hotels, service providers, and it is a city that likes responsible tourism, because we believe that tourism is not made to do well for the tourist, but for the community. And if it does well for the community, it will do well for the tourist.
And as for MICE tourism, in general it is a tourist who takes care of the destination, who takes care of the city, spends well, and if things go well for him in the destination, in his convention, he returns. And he does not return alone, he returns with his family. Generally that call is made from the destination, in which he calls his family and tells them everything he found and what caught his attention. That is what we are looking for. It is a city that welcomes all tourists, but Medellín has terms and conditions that must be accepted before coming to our city.
What are those terms and conditions?
Taking care of the city, respecting visitors, taking care of the environment, the tourist sites and generally behaving well. And behaving well doesn't mean avoiding going to parties, but rather behaving well at parties. A tourist who stays in a hotel watching television, ordering room service, is of no use to us. We want a tourist who goes out on the street, who experiences the city, who consumes the community, I mean, who goes to our neighborhoods, walks, talks to the community. That's the kind of tourist we like.
Talk to people, converse and listen to their stories, because we went from being perhaps the most violent city in the world 20 or 30 years ago, today it is one of the most innovative cities, and thanks to our artists like Maluma, Karol G and J. Balvin, they have put us in the world spotlight.
When these young people stand in front of a stage and say they are from Medellin, Colombia, people go home and look for the destination. They put us on the map, but that is where the great responsibility comes, because we have to know what to show tourists to meet their expectations. We have that great challenge as a city.
What is the connectivity situation in Medellín?
We are a very well-connected city. We have more than 20 direct air routes to cities around the world and that makes it easy to go to Medellín. Today we have a route from Buenos Aires, but Avianca gave us four gifts in the last few months, with direct routes to Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima and Curaçao. In addition, recently Wingo has also offered us direct flights to Curaçao, and Latam has offered us direct flights.
We have many airlines that have offered us direct flights, which operate these routes because it is a business for them. But the responsibility of maintaining them is no longer only on the airline, there are major players; the operators together with the airline, the physical, online and virtual operators.
And what we are doing today in Buenos Aires is telling people “welcome to Medellin, Medellin has a lot to offer you.” That is where we talk to operators, travel agencies and even the general public.
How many visitors has the city had so far this year? What were the objectives you had set at the beginning of the season?
Last year we brought in approximately 1.6 million tourists, 50% of them foreigners, only those who enter through the immigration point and those who enter through José María Córdoba. This year we are growing compared to last year's figures through August, 25%. Our goal is not to have too many tourists, it is to bring good tourists and also to have them stay more days. It is a very difficult task to get people to stay in Medellín for about four days. We want them to stay at least six days in this first stage, so that they spend four days in Medellín and two in the region, going to Guatapé, Santa Fé de Antioquia, the nearby East, Río Negro, Marinilla, El Retiro and all these towns near Medellín. Economically it would be a giant leap for the city, which is very well prepared, internally connected and very safe.
There are two things that people need to travel. One, how to get there, the air connection. Two, security. Without security there is no tourism. We need tourist sites in perfect condition and safe, where I can take out my cell phone, take a photo and nothing happens to me. In addition to that, being able to take a taxi or any type of transportation to get to my final destination, hotel or wherever I go, in a safe way, where they charge me what is fair.
This is a tourist site in perfect condition and safe. We take visitors to Comuna 13 and today the least they see there is graffiti. There are people who walk around happily, because they have contact with the community, they find coffee made by the community, urban art, beauty, the neighborhood singers. Then the tourist arrives, buys water or coffee, sees the artists, pays them, gives them tips. That is how that tourist made the community grow.
What plans do you have to continue presenting the region as a destination worth visiting in the coming months?
This year is coming to an end, but we have a very nice season of lights coming up in Medellín, in December. Christmas is very good, we eat buñuelos, empanadas, natilla, everything is delicious gastronomically speaking. In addition, the city's lights are beautiful, at Christmas Medellín is totally transformed. We still have the great challenge of bringing many tourists from December to mid-January.
What other events will you be performing at in the coming months?
We have a tour in Colombia at a fair that we do with businessmen, we will also be in the United States, and we will go to Sao Paulo, because we have the Sao Paulo-Medellín flight that will be inaugurated, which we want to maintain over time.