To increase tourism in Bogota, Colombia’s capital city should not just focus on improved policing, but also pay attention to making the city more attractive to the eye, a U.S. tourism expert tells newspaper El Tiempo.
In an interview with newspaper El Tiempo, tourism safety expert rabbi Peter E. Tarlow said that police dealing with tourists should be “extroverted, caring, and like being with people from around the world.”
Additionally, tourism police “should learn another language and be patient, because they’re going to ask him the same thing a thousand times.”
Tarlow, a Texas A&M scholar, adviced the Colombian capital to increase the visibility of police. “We can talk about cameras, but without human beings that’s worth nothing.”
To fulfill its tourism potential however, the answer is not only in more police. “Beauty and nature is teh cheapest way of lowering crime statistics,” said the expert.
“For example, in [Bogota’s historic district] La Candelaria I would like to see a lot more flowers; Tourism is inspiration. Instead I see dogs eating garbage and people throwing their litter on the street. So what will the tourist say? ‘They don’t care about me’. If you don’t want to be tidy because you don’t love your city, at least do it for the money,” Tarlow said.