Medellin has released its five-year plan for increasing tourism, based on increasing attractions, developing health tourism, and expanding opportunities for visitors to immerse themselves in the natural beauty of the “city of eternal spring.”
The object of the overall tourism plan is to “improve the competitiveness of the touristic services and destinations in Colombia with the goal of making tourism a sustainable growth strategy for the country, that contributes to the generation of employment, the prosperity of the regions, and to stimulate the virtuous cycle of social promotion.”
General goals of the Medellin Tourism Development Plan include plans to roughly double the number of visitors to the city, increase investment in tourism, and improve Medellin’s ranking on the Urban Competitive Index’s (ICUR) list of “best Latin American cities to do business in.”
Specifically, the city hopes to increase the yearly number of international visitors to 400,000 by the year 2016, increase tourism’s financial contribution to Medellin’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 20% compared to 2010, and to improve Medellin’s ranking on the ICUR’s list by at least five positions, from 14th in 2010.