The 55 millionth foreign tourist arriving in Colombia in 2023 was welcomed with papaya, who is he?

02:30 pm

Sure Franco Molina Podesta will never forget his trip to Colombia. The Argentinian landed at Bogotá’s El Dorado Airport this Friday morning, becoming the 5,500,000th tourist to visit Colombia. What is unusual is that the foreigner was surprised by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism German Umana Mendoza herself, who welcomed him along with Papyra.

There was no other idea of ​​national government Celebrate significant surge in tourist arrivals in Colombia And the achievement of the target set by the Ministry to achieve more than this this year. 5.2 million tourists.

Umana Mendoza celebrated this achievement and assured that “It’s about a historical figure, “This exceeds our expectations, and reflects the work we are developing in the Gustavo Petro government to promote the wonderful destinations Colombia has to offer.”

The 5.5 millionth tourist was identified based on calculations prepared by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, based on international flights data from the Ministry of Civil Aeronautics and the most recent data from Migration Colombia, which indicates that The country received 5,188,312 non-resident visitors as of November 30, 2023.

“we decided to Give a special welcome to the traveler whom we recognize by the number 5.5 million, Symbolically, to reaffirm the effectiveness of our tourism in harmony with life policy and the ‘Colombia’ tourism promotion campaign,” said Arturo Bravo, Deputy Minister of Tourism.

Rebound

The truth is that according to a report by the Office of Economic Studies of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, The number of tourists in the first 11 months of this year increased by 26.1% compared to the same period in 2022, when about 4.11 million non-resident tourists visited the country.

According to Mincomercio, the comeback has been due to work between the public and private sectors to promote tourism in Colombian regions at the national and international level.

Deputy Minister Bravo also said that the good results are due to Colombia’s El Pais de la Belleza campaign. They estimated that there will be 5.7 million visitors this year, meaning they estimate that, in the remainder of 2023, approximately 200,000 more foreigners will enter the country.

According to the calculations of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism and Regional Analysis and Promotion Management of ProColombia, The number of visitors on cruise ships will increase by approximately 120% by the end of 2023. While foreign visitors will increase by 23% and Colombians living abroad who return to the country for their holidays will increase by 8%.

internal tourism

Domestic tourism also reports excellent performance. According to Household Expenditure in Tourism Survey -EGIT-, In the third quarter of 2023, approximately 2.9 million people were inbound visitors, representing 13.1% of the total population, and 2.6 percentage points higher than reported in the same period of 2022.

during this time1.5 million people were identified as internal tourists, i.e. those who travel and spend the night at their chosen destination. This is 7% of the total population of the country and 0.6 points more than the same period in 2022.

The main reasons for travel reported by people traveling within the country were visiting relatives or friends (45.5%) and entertainment and holidays (45.2%).