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INTERNATIONAL
Colombia is high on the hit
list of international travel
destinations in 2010, according
to various travel guides
such as Concierge.com in Europe
and a raft of tourist publications.
The New York Times
also has Colombia down this
year as one of the affordable
hotspots in Latin America,
putting it among Americans’
top travel destinations. The
huge effort that Colombia has
successfully made on the security
front is another major
factor that has now turned the
country into a much soughtafter
international must-visit.In
particular it is the development
of its capital Bogotá
that is whetting the appetite of
travellers the world over. In
the late 1990s the city experienced
meteoric embellishment
and change, and meanwhile
it is a model of urban
development in Latin America.
Where rather unattractive
pavements were once used
mainly as parking spaces, enchanting
street cafés under
shady trees now brighten up
the cityscape, and in the historic
city centre restaurants
and no fewer than 58 museums,
among them the redesigned
Museo del Oro housing
some 20,000 art treasures
from pre-Columbian cultures
MICE destination Colombia
“The most cheerful people
on the continent”
Colombia is still an unspent and authentic destination, and that is precisely what makes it so
attractive for meetings and even more so for incentives. Its scenic variety is another big help.
Snow-covered Andean peaks, tropical rain forests, pristine beaches along the Pacific, bustling
life in the cities on the Caribbean coast – organisers are spoilt for choice there.
Colombia is one of the affordable hotspots in Latin America, putting it among Americans’ top travel destinations.
besides roughly 34,000 objects
made of gold, tempt visitors
to stop a while. Equally
impressive is the collection at
the National Museum,
housed in a former prison
building and comprising
20,000 pieces. Another must,
especially for incentive groups
interested in art, is the Botero-
Museum. In addition to 123
works by the artist Fernando
Botero, it also shows another
60 exhibits by artists such as
Coro, Renoir, Picasso and Miró.
Bogotá’s MICE-related infras-
tructure is also extremely respectable.
On the exhibition
grounds of Colombia’s biggest
trade fair organiser, Corferias
in Bogotá, a new hall
measuring around 15,000 m²
is planned for this year. To
make way for the newbuild, in
2009 Halls 17 to 20 were entirely
demolished.
The new Hall 17 is scheduled
to open in December 2010.
Construction costs are estimated
at around USD 27 million.
To complement this building
work, in the second half of
2010 the hall sections 10 to 16
will be refurbished and a passageway
built to the new Hall
17. When all this work is complete,
Corferias will be able to
boast 53,235 m² of hall area
and around 15,000 m² of outdoor
exhibition space. Additionally,
the Corferias Convention
Center is available for conferences
accompanying exhibitions.
But of course, this by
no means exhausts the meetings
potential of the roughly
eight million-strong metropolis.
Just 15 minutes from Bogotá’s
El Dorado Airport, for
instance, lies the Gonzalo Ji-
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