Colombia to Develop Strategy to Attract More Lucrative Nautical Tourism

Colombia to Develop Strategy to Attract More Lucrative Nautical Tourism

Colombia’s tourism ministry will hold a special forum aimed at attracting an increasing share of the lucrative multi-million dollar nautical tourism industry in Latin America, organizers said Thursday.

The forum will start Friday in the northern Colombian tourism town of Santa Marta, China’s Xinhua news agency quoted Gregorio Mendez, manager of the tourism consultancy firm GMM, as saying. Mendez will present a special study developed on the potential of targeting this class of high-income luxury tourism.

This will open up for a kind of tourism that is very sustainable, offers tourists more options and which represents something that will translate into markets with a higher revenue power, said Mendez.

Both public and private entities will be participating in the debate of nautical (aquatic) tourism, including special participation by industries that include mega yacht clubs, sailing ships, boats and cruise ships to ensure that Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast will be increasingly included in maritime routes from the tropical islands in the Caribbean, Central and South America.

An estimated 2 million sports and tourism embarkations are registered each year in the Caribbean Sea and investments in this industry are worth more than US$1 billion, local tourism authorities said.