What Jumps Out: On The Beach?

Overall, it continues on the depressing side with continued violence between armed gangs, a stagnated reform process, continued cabinet changes, and the obvious concerns over the orange man’s demonic behavior in Washington, although libertarians in Colombia fail to see the irony in their support of President Donald Trump. But that’s for another day.

Today, good news only. Let’s chat about Colombia’s continued home run, tourism. Whilst Gustavo Petro was only picking up the baton of the upward curve that had existed since COVID-19 finished, he strongly declared that tourism would eventually replace commodities in terms of dollar revenues and was the fastest form to lift needy communities out of poverty.

Last year saw (tourism) dollar revenues hit $10 billion USD, not quite at commodity level, but closing very fast, and Colombia is only just beginning to realize it’s enormous potential as a desirable destination. The United Nations has also supported globally the concept of decreasing poverty via tourism, and there is a huge drive to push that campaign forward.

This week, ANATO Vitrina Turistica, the largest tourism fair in the region, took place in Bogotá. A total of 5,000 companies were represented across 46 countries with 50,000 attendees. I was there, and the pavilions were hopping; at times, it was like New Year’s in Times Square. Equally, at FITUR in Madrid a month ago, Colombia was in play.

2024 was a record year, and already, 2025 is set to surpass those numbers. In January, international airline arrivals increased by 13% to 2,254,000. Attendees at ANATO also reported a healthy start to the year.

But it will not be Medellín or Cartagena that will be the forward-looking driver. Instead, it will smaller towns and villages as visitors locally join the international tendency to seek more adventurous destinations. Some future hotspots haven’t been heard of by most Colombians, let alone by those arriving from overseas.

When will it match oil & coal? Judging by the vibes in the pavilions, it will possibly be sooner than expected, but in an ideal world, both will continue in rude health.

In other news. From Fedesarrollo, there was an improvement in both industrial and retail confidence, this dovetails with the recent consumer reading.

The government also announced that it had carved out 69 sectors, spread across 270 square kilometers, for future offshore eolic energy auctions—that’s wind power to us mere mortals.

Always good to end on the positives.

Have a great Friday.

Regards Roops.

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Photo credit: wjgomes from Pixabay.