-
It’s a matter of insecurity.
We live in a reality exceeding any sociopolitical posture; there’s been an internal civil conflict for over 100 years. It has marked different periods throughout national history. Paraphrasing the proverb, we are still alive to tell the story.
Between the late 20th century and the early 21st century, there were not that many foreigners daring to visit such a country devastated by trafficking, corruption, illegal groups, and so on. However, from within the country, in a display of resilience (may I use this term so trendy), some regions focused on tourism and its benefits. This was initially internal tourism, which grew little by little, eventually reaching a global scale.
They created many different marketing campaigns outlining different aspects of the national traits in an effort to renew the visitors’ vision. These included: “The most welcoming country in the world”, “Experience Colombia, travel around”, “The only risk is wanting to stay”, “Colombia is passion” et nowadays “The country of beauty”. All of these campaigns resulted in significant and positive economic growth, but the conflict remains. There have been critical moments affecting some regions badly or not so badly. The truth is, we now have more and more sites, some of which we didn’t know about or didn’t dare to visit because of their contexts and antecedents related to the conflict.
Guaviare, like several other Colombian regions, has experienced many ups and downs throughout its history, alongside important achievements. It has been nominated for the World Travel Awards consecutively and has established itself as an important destination due to its rich variety of sites that are worth the visit.
In the last few years, we have noticed important growth in the number of international visitors. We have the capacity to welcome them in different languages with quality services, and we receive positive feedback when many travelers are charmed during their visits.
When asking international visitors about their motivations or reasons to come, they generally mention blogs, publications, word of mouth, and marketing campaigns, all focused on the new chances to visit this region, especially after the peace agreements in 2016. References to the past and present in public order also appear, though they are fewer. It becomes ironic when we systematically perceive that resistance appears during their exchanges with other Colombian citizens.
Indeed, it seems that at the moment they share their itineraries, especially once in Colombian territory already, our fellow nationals create alerts, whether because of a lack of information about the region and its reality, or because they are under the influence of the sensationalist press, merciless with the entire region as it was previously with the entire country.
On an international scale, we can cite many instances where, despite the proximity of significant tourist sites to regions experiencing critical sociopolitical environments, tourism continues to grow, like Abu Simbel temples in Egypt near Sudan border, Petra in a short distance with Israel, the West-Bank and the Gaza strip, and many different capitals in Europe under the constant terror of terrorist attacks…
On a national scale, the areas under the influence of some irregular armed forces are located at distances from cities like Bogota, Cartagena, and Medellin that are similar to, or even shorter than, those in San Jose del Guaviare and the La Lindosa plateau. Anyway, faced with uncertainty, you should at least ask in a show of solidarity because tourism remains for us an important development alternative.
We will keep on living to tell the story. Despite the vicissitudes, we aim to continue contributing significantly. This means doing so with passion, with the best motivation to encourage the wish to stay, to experience Colombia and travel around – in short, to continue showing the beauty of the country of beauty.