Tourism professionals marketing Colombia as the next paradise destination see Atlanta as a promising source market for travelers eyeing the many charms of the South American nation.
ProColombia, the trade and investment agency, hosted an annual conclave of travel-industry professionals in the city last week, citing Atlanta’s growing air lift to Colombia and sizable “niche” markets including its large African American middle class.
Andrea Paola Rojas Charry, the top diplomat at the Consulate General of Colombia in Atlanta, said U.S. travel to the country grew by 4 percent to 1.5 million visitors in 2024.
The top sender of tourists to Colombia, the U.S. comprised about 21 percent of the international visitors last year, which eclipsed 7 million.
Ms. Rojas said increased travel is just one dimension of a deeper relationship with the U.S., also her country’s top trading partner and source of foreign direct investment.
“These ties reflect more than just statistics; they are the result of over 200 years of trust cooperation and shared vision,” she said, alluding to the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between the countries celebrated in 2022. “Tourism plays a crucial role in depending these relationships. It fuels economic growth, encourages cultural understanding, and creates new opportunities for both nations.”
Colombia, which bills itself the “country of beauty,” is selling not only its unrivaled biodiversity, but also the warmth of its people, the richness of its cuisine (and of course, coffee) and its adventure- and eco-tourism offerings — all made possible by an international reputation that grows more sterling with each passing year.
For decades hampered by an outdated perception influenced by the overhang of its violent past, Colombia is now having a moment culturally in the U.S. as more people experience the nation of 52 million people, which straddles both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Many Atlantans have returned entranced by cities like Bogota, the capital; Medellin, the inland business hub known as an exemplar urban transformation; Cartagena, a coastal colonial town now reachable via nonstop flights from Atlanta, and Cali, which lies near the Pacific Coast and serves as the epicenter of the country’s sizeable Afro-Colombian community.
Chambers of commerce including the Atlanta Black Chambers (Cali) and the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (Medellin) have led trade missions to the country to uncover trade and tourism potential.
Some marketers touted undiscovered gems like the Caribbean islands of San Andres and Providencia, which sit closer to Nicaragua than the Colombian mainland but are focused on attracting a new wave of American tourists. With the sixth largest land area of countries in the Western Hemisphere, Colombia also boasts natural assets from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon rainforests of the east.
Many of Colombia’s top 25 travel marketers convened in Atlanta for the ProColombia forum, where they engaged in one-on-one business meetings with U.S. travel agents at the Hyatt Centric Hotel in Buckhead.
On the second full day, an academic forum brought out experts to speak on air access and travel trends.
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