Inbound tourism to Colombia is continuing to surge with the number of international arrivals up by 18% on 2019 levels during January this year.
The country attracted 454,727 foreign visitors in the first month of 2023, representing an increase of 63.5% compared to January 2022, ProColombia's vice-president of tourism Gilberto Salcedo tells Routes.
Salcedo says the rise came after tourism numbers recovered to pre-pandemic levels during 2022 with more than 4.5 million people visiting the country.
“At ProColombia, we have been working hard toward enhancing our tourism industry to make it more sustainable, meaningful and impactful with the local communities and in harmony with all forms of life. And the world is noticing Colombia more than ever,” he says.
Despite recent turmoil in the country’s domestic aviation industry following Viva’s decision to suspend flights, Salcedo says the market remains strong with a number of operators seeking to expand service to and from Colombia.
“Colombia is connected to 26 countries with more than 1,200 weekly air frequencies with an availability of more than 218,000 weekly seats,” he says.
“We have destinations opening soon with Avianca, such as Guayaquil, Quito and Aruba to Medellín; Guayaquil to Cartagena; and Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Tegucigalpa, Guayaquil and Boston to Bogotá.
"Likewise, LATAM with the routes from Guayaquil and Orlando to Bogotá, which will start operations in March and July respectively.”