Chicamocha National Park has become Colombia’s most visited tourist attraction, according to statistics revealed by the Ministry of Trade and Tourism Monday.
According to the Ministry, in the three years since Chicamocha’s opening, the park – located in the department of Santander – has received 978,000 visitors and is expecting to top one million by the end of the year.
As a result of these figures the park is preparing to cater for 2010’s influx of tourists, considering that a 30% increase in visitor numbers is expected during the coming new year, reported newspaper Vanguardia Monday.
Chicamocha is soon to open new games tracks as well as remodelling its ice rink, and renovation and maintenance of most other areas is scheduled.
“We have grown so fast and we have to adjust aspects of our infrastructure to serve more tourists, thus we have had to focus on specific areas of work,” said Carlos Fernandez Sanchez, director of the Chicamocha National Park Corporation.
According to Sanchez, legal proceedings are now taking place involving the approval of licenses by the Governor of Santander for the land on which a hotel is planned.
The park is soon to open the so-called Plazuela Station, a new feature whose inauguration has been brought forward in order to deal with the amount of visitors predicted. The structure was built on three hectares of land and cost some COP2.2 billion (funded through the parks resources).
The Plazuela will contain shops and a restaurant and will generate around 30 new jobs for locals.