Since last August Colombia’s historical city of Cartagena has received almost half a million visitors arriving on cruise ships alone, the city tourist board reported Wednesday.
According to the Colombian Association of Travel Agencies and Tourism (ANATO), the number of visitors brought to the city by cruise ship in the last ten months far exceeded the expected number of 300,000, and will have generated some $30 million income for the city.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe congratulated ANATO for its part in the success.
“In this season in Cartagena there arrived 500,000, including crew and passengers from the boats,” said the president, “… amongst you are agents of progress, of prosperity. For the government it would have been a lot more difficult to cause this revival of tourism in Colombia, if you [ANATO] did not exist.”
Travel to Cartagena is becoming increasing popular, with niche markets such as VIP holidays increasingly in demand.