“Ecotourism includes all activities carried out in natural environments, such as bird watching, hiking, adventure activities, wellness tourism, bicycle tourism, among others. However, the implementation of good management systems for solid waste and vital non-renewable natural resources must be carried out hand in hand with the communities, who are a fundamental part of the design and definition of the type of tourism they wish to receive in order to identify the way in which tourism activity can impact them positively, through knowledge of their ecosystems and their preservation,” explained Paula Cortés Calle, executive president of ANATO.
Another key player in the promotion, but also in the sustainable care of our destinations, are the Travel Agencies, since currently, 67% of the Travel Agencies assure that within their five main types of sales are those related to adventure tourism, bird and whale watching and cultural tourism.
“Our country has nearly 40 million hectares of protected land, distributed between maritime and terrestrial areas, and as we cannot ignore that tourism is one of the activities that has a major impact on the environment, the preservation of flora and fauna and the inclusion of communities, together with our travel agencies and constant work with the population, we implement actions that, in addition to offsetting the carbon footprint, lead to the generation of employment for the economic and social strengthening of our regions,” explained the union leader.
It is worth noting that Colombia, like few countries, has a regulatory framework on sustainable tourism, which speaks of environmental conservation, promotion of good practices, sustainable certifications, taxes and incentives, and ecosystem protection, which was formally adopted by Decree 646 of 2021 and implemented in 2022 with an execution time of 2030, which seeks to harmonize the economic and sociocultural development objectives of tourism with the need to protect the cultural and natural capital that makes Colombia an attractive destination and is one of the main forces of wealth.
“While this policy aims to strengthen the sector by consolidating itself as an economically profitable and viable business, it is also a vehicle for development and an instrument for the conservation of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems and the country's natural resources. We also have certifications in sustainable tourism, which was initially one of the requirements implemented to obtain the National Tourism Registry; then we helped to implement the NTS 003 standard so that entrepreneurs could carry out good sustainable practices in the three aspects: environmental, economic and sociocultural,” said Paula Cortés Calle, executive president of ANATO.
Source: ANATO.