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Sustainable Tourism
Organizations that operate, coordinate and promote world-class nature-based experiences in destinations that protect the environment while supporting local communities.

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Colombia as a high-class sustainable tourist destination
By Antonia Zapata

The Opportunity

Colombia can become a high-class sustainable tourist destination and generate inclusive and sustainable development while promoting peacebuilding by upscaling its current touristic potential. It is uniquely positioned to do so as it:

  • It is the second most biodiverse country in the world, hosting more than 17,000 endemic species of birds, mammals, amphibians, plants and lichens, freshwater fish, and reptiles.
  • It has a wide diversity of different ecosystems, such as tropical forests, mountain habitats, grasslands, paramos, and islands both in the Pacific and Caribbean oceans. There are 119 protected areas that comprise 26M of hectares at the national level.

Despite this potential, Colombia hasn’t been able to exploit this opportunity:

  • Informality in tourism stands for 54% of the total employability, which generates low-quality jobs, reduces the tax base, acts as unfair competition, and cannot protect the resources with which they operate.
  • While tourism represents only 8% of the GDP, in other Latin American countries it weighs 10%1.
  • Tourism boom has brought informality, resulting in nature destruction (e.g., Construction of informal hotels have caused environmental damages, such as the cutting of trees)2.

The Challenge

To build a sustainable and inclusive touristic portfolio that competitively offer high-class and world known experiences Colombia offer economic opportunities for communities and local inhabitants to allow them an equitable distribution of the economic benefits derived from nature-based tourism. But To achieve this, local communities must:

  • Improve local capacity to offer world-class experiences: Due to the lack of local communities’ lack of capacity to offer world-class experiences, agencies and large companies are receiving the benefits3.
  • Improve local touristic infrastructure: There are communities that do not have the necessary accommodations, minimal infrastructure, and good communication to sustainably meet tourist demand. That is why capital investments are necessary to ensure an ecotourism approach.

To improve both the capacity to offer world-class experiences and the local touristic infrastructure, local communities must increase their access to technology and infrastructure, knowledge and finance:

  • Technology and infrastructure: There are limited capacities in the regions to have infrastructure that supports the water, sanitary and environmental management required to support tourism dynamics4.
  • Knowledge: The lack of capacity of local communities to offer comprehensive services has meant that large companies and agencies take all the benefits. Additionally, there is a shortage of skilled, trained, and qualified bilingual professionals that attend the international demand.
  • Finance: Informality in the tourism sector (commerce, hotels and restaurants) is the one with the highest participation in the informal economy, with 42%, a value that has also been growing. One of the main causes of informality is the excess of paperwork and the regulatory burden. It is key that progress is made in simplifying the requirements to consider a company as formal, without detracting from the quality of the information reported5.

Expected development outcome

Overcoming the challenges that face Colombian sustainable and inclusive nature tourism can bring significant social and environmental benefits:

  • Offer economic opportunities for communities and local inhabitants to allow them an equitable distribution of the economic benefits derived from nature-based tourism. It would also raise consumer awareness, providing incentives for conserving the destinations’ natural heritage and local culture.
  • Take advantage of the country’s growth in tourism to position ecotourism as one of the best possibilities for social and environmental sustainability.

The possibility of bringing additional income to local communities by attracting tourists can increase employment formality by joining the entire sector and the benefits it can bring.

Enabling Factors

We believe that in Colombia there is the right environment for sustainable nature tourism to thrive:

  • Active development planning: An Action Plan of the National Policy for Management of Biodiversity and its Ecosystem Services & Strategy to Control Deforestation and Forest Management is being designed by the Ministry of Environment with support from UNDP, UN Environment, and FAO. They aim at caring for biodiversity hand in hand with economic development, knowledge, and risk management, which encompasses ecotourism services.
  • Financial and fiscal support: With the Financing Law (1943 of 2018), there is a preferential rent of 9% that offers advantages to ecotourism, agrotourism, and nautical docks projects.
  • Governmental priority and support: Intending to promote tourism, since 2018 the Colombian government has invested USD$ 182M for 30 tourism infrastructure projects.
  • Prioritized activity for peacebuilding: With the Vice Ministry of Tourism and Peace’s leadership and the collaborative articulation of the Interinstitutional Table, it is expected that the ecotourism and agrotourism project proposed by the ex-FARC combatants in Guaviare can be consolidated and implemented natural routes in the department.

Obstacles to Scale

  • Low stakeholder participation: There is a risk that large operators will take the benefits that could be for the local community, which would not contribute to their economy but to the enrichment of large companies.
  • Drop off risk: Some communities may agree to develop infrastructure to serve tourism. However, some actors may oppose, making the communities unable to continue with the service, despite investments that have been made.
  • Local communities responsiveness: There are small communities that may need help in the education of sustainable practices to develop ecotourism practices. There may also be indigenous communities that oppose the entry of a high flow of tourists.

What is Amplo Doing

  • Supporting the structuring and operation of the fund for the recovery and sustainability of Providencia and Santa Catalina, promoting enterprises that operate with sustainable tourism in the islands [Bancoldex]
  1. DNP (2017) – Plan Nacional de Desarrollo (2018 – 2022)
  2. El Tiempo (2019) – Exceso de turistas y hotelería ilegal ponen en jaque a la naturaleza. Accessed June 13th, 2020
  3. Jimenez et al (2019) – El turismo como motor de la economía colombiana. Accessed June 13th, 2020
  4. MinComercio (2017) – Plan Sectorial de Turismo. Accessed June 3rd, 2020
  5. Ibid.

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