International tourism to Colombia returns to pre-pandemic levels

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – International tourism to Colombia is in frank recovery, and bookings for the mid-year season practically equaled 2019, the last year before the pandemic, reported the official agency ProColombia.

According to data from the international consulting firm ForwardKeys, released by ProColombia, air bookings for the June-August period were 304,315, a figure 148% higher than those for the same period in 2021, when the country was beginning to emerge from the pandemic and equivalent to 98% of the 311,763 recorded in the same period of 2019.

The most requested Colombian destinations from abroad are Bogota, Medellin, Cartagena, Cali, Barranquilla, and Pereira, while the countries of origin of travelers are mainly the United States (36.3%), Spain (7.6%), and Chile (5.7%).

“In 2022, we have evidenced a very favorable growth trend in everything related to the air capacity, new international routes, and dynamism of our tourism sector,” said the president of ProColombia, Flavia Santoro.

According to Santoro, “with these results of the number of bookings to Colombia for the mid-year high season, we are practically matching the records of 2019, a year that was historic for tourism in the country, and that has served us as a benchmark for the entire post-pandemic reactivation strategy.”

In 2019, Colombia received a record 4.5 million non-resident foreign travelers, which plummeted in 2020 due to the pandemic, which forced the closure of airports and all productive activity for several months.

Santoro added that the increase in international bookings to Colombia and the diversity of destinations requested “responds to the strategy of decentralization of air connectivity, which we have promoted from ProColombia, with which we have achieved that, to date, ten cities in the country have direct international connections with 42 cities in the world, in 26 countries”.

According to the president of ProColombia, in the first quarter of 2022, 914,882 non-resident visitors arrived in Colombia, “which represents a growth of 220% compared to the same period of the previous year”.

Industry analysts believe that the steady rise of the dollar in Colombia, where this Tuesday the exchange rate reached a new record by closing at COP 4,625, may favor the flow of international tourists and, at the same time, encourage domestic travelers to stay in the country on vacation.

“Although the increase in the dollar is not so favorable for the sector and Colombian travelers who wish to travel abroad, we must see this situation as an opportunity to support local tourism and get to know the cities and territories of our country,” said the Product Manager of Viajes Falabella, María Fernanda Rosero.

Therefore, Rosero assured that “taking vacations in Colombian destinations will be an excellent alternative, without a doubt”.

With information from EFE

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