Tourism continues to rise in Colombia and South America

Tourism continues to rise in Colombia and South America

With the most recent report of World Tourism Barometer published by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the hotel industry made ​​a general sweep by tourism figures of Colombia and the world during the early months of 2014.

The growing flow of visitors, the industry contribution to GDP, employment generation and growth expectations are some of the most important data that highlights COTELCO.

"Knowing the current state of our industry and demonstrate growth expectations is a must as an industry we have to make adjustments to the outstanding issues and prepare for the challenges that lie ahead with the arrival of more foreign tourists. Our priority should be legal stability for our business, generating direct employment, ongoing training and increased hotel occupancy, "said Gustavo Adolfo Toro, Executive Chairman COTELCO.

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM 

According to the latest report of the Barometer, international tourism is going through a good time and are expected to increase in the flow of foreign visitors between 4 and 4.5 percent at the end of 2014, which represents about 460 million tourists traveling abroad during the year, an increase of 5 percent, keeping the rate recorded in 2013.

In the first four months of 2014 about 317 million international tourists (14 million more than in 2013) were mobilized, which is more than what we had established the international agency for the annual increase between 2010-growth period 2020 which states at 3.8 percent.

The report also highlights the growth of the Americas 6 percent and growth in South America 2 percentage points between January and April 2014, compared with the same period in 2013.

With this background, Colombia has a huge opportunity to capture new niche market and a greater flow of foreign visitors in 2014.

SECTOR IN COLOMBIA 

Meanwhile, the tourism of the country has a favorable balance in the first half of the year in terms of foreign visitors, and contribution to GDP growth in formal employment.

A work that has been achieved after the articulation of the public and private sectors of tourism, issues such as innovation and competitiveness of the tourism entrepreneurs, the work of open markets and trade missions that have encouraged 'networking ', as well as product diversification and constant improvement of the service, as reported COTELCO.

One of the most dynamic sectors in the consolidation of tourism as a factor of national economy, has been to hotels, restaurants, bars and the like which showed growth in the first quarter, 1.8 percentage points compared to the growth registered in 2013.

According to figures from Dane, the main reason for travel for non-resident foreign travelers was the business segment with 59.2 percent in 2013 and 54.2 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

In the same period, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, 91.2 percent of the total arrivals of non-resident aliens came from the United States (109,168 arrivals), the European Union (100,749 arrivals), mainly from Spain (29,711), France (13,433) and Germany (12,028).

The largest increases were visitors from Mexico (38.8 percent), European Union (24.4 percent), Mercosur (16.9 percent) and Chile (16.3 percent).

THE HOTEL OCCUPANCY STILL FALLING

The occupancy rate of the first 5 months of 2014 was 51.48 percent, down 0.4 percentage points compared with the same period in 2013.

This situation has persisted for the past two years, due to factors such as increased supply, the growth of informality in the country, the VAT increase accommodation and high tax burdens as the extra cost of energy 20 percent, the union said.