USAID helps to unlock Colombia’s nature tourism potential in a post COVID-19 reality

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Colombia was becoming a top travel destination,growing an average of 9 percent in number of visitors from 2012 to 2019, compared to a4.4 percent growth worldwide, and 5.3 percent growth in the Americas during the sameperiod. The signature of the 2016 Peace Agreement led to a greater possibility to exploreand discover numerous well-conserved areas throughout Colombia.

Well organized and socially responsible nature tourism is an opportunity for biodiversityconservation as it provides additional income to rural communities, making them lessdependent on unsustainable economic activities. However, several factors includinglimited knowledge and public awareness of the biodiversity richness in these areas,untrained human capital, and rudimentary infrastructure and accessibility, hinder thetourism sector’s potential growth. Current unsustainable tourism practices also threatennatural resources and ecosystems that local communities depend on. The COVID-19pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of the sector, which has lost 95 percent of therevenue and it will take at least four years to recover and return to 2019 levels. Furtherexacerbating the situation in rural communities is the fact that those whose livelihoodsdepended on nature tourism activities are even more vulnerable as they lack access toadequate health services and the capabilities to overcome this situation.

All of these difficulties and limitations are an opportunity to develop nature tourism as atool for conservation and livelihood improvement. Therefore, USAID’s Natural WealthProgram responded to many of these challenges by implementing a holistic strategy:assisting rural and indigenous communities, linking private sector actors and NGOs, and

USAID helps to unlock Colombia’s nature tourism potential in a post COVID-19 reality

working with the Government of Colombia to bolster nature tourism as an opportunity toachieve self-reliance in the territories and conserve the country’s rich biodiversity. The strategy addresses specific challenges facing nature tourism through six pillars:

1 - Public Awareness: Rural communities’ lack of environmental awareness of theirterritories results in missed opportunities to conserve their natural wealth. Thus, theProgram – along with local NGOs – has engaged more than 800 students and 25educational and grassroots organizations to foster conservation of the tropical dry forestand the flooded savannas for future generations.

2 - Knowledge: Without information and real-time dataabout the territory, communities and tourism providers donot know what their ecosystem offers and cannotimplement conservation strategies to preserve species.Natural Wealth along with Colombia’s National BiodiversityInstitute has implemented monitoring strategies alongsidecommunities and NGOs such as Hijos de la Sierra Flor,involving camera trapping activities. As a result, theinitiative has obtained more than 165,000 photos andvideos including 39 species in Montes de María, and 31 inOrinoquía. The Program has engaged more than 250participants to date, including a high involvement amongyouth and women. This information is valuable to promotea destination and to link monitoring work and naturetourism in benefit of biodiversity conservation.

3 – Training: To assure the human capital necessary for the sector to thrive and topromote the generational renewal needed in rural areas, Natural Wealth and partnerKuepa (a Latin American educational organization) is training young women and men (seegraph below) in the Serranía del Perijá on topics of hospitality and tourism management,ecotourism (e.g., natural ecosystem restoration, birdwatching), English as a secondlanguage, and entrepreneurial skills.

USAID helps to unlock Colombia’s nature tourism potential in a post COVID-19 reality

4 – Capacity Building:At the organizational level, the Program works with localorganizations, providers, and the Government of Colombia in: a) training tourismproviders to respond to international travelers’ needs and improve their administrative andmarketing skills (e.g., ProColombia’s international tourism training program), b) structuringtourism destinations, and c) strengthening small organizations to provide small scaleecotourism services. To date the Program has built more than 70 travel packages andtrained more than 100 people through conservation and tourism workshops in theProgram’s target landscapes.

5 – Links to markets: Through Awake Travel, a Colombian Online nature tourismmarketplace, Natural Wealth is connecting destinations with travelers both domesticallyand internationally who are interested in nature tourism attractions. The Program is alsoworking with NGOs to use digital tools and social media to market their services. Finally,the Program is supporting ProColombia (Colombia’s government exporting promoter) tohost in November the 2020 Nature Travel Mart to promote Colombian destinations withininternational markets.

6 – Government of Colombia: To assist the Government of Colombia in strengtheningthe nature tourism sector, the Program: supported the legal framework review to acquirenature tourism guide licenses (a key element for nature tourism activities), participated inthe development of the national tourism guiding school, and is developing the NationalHandbook for Nature Tourism Guides. Finally, looking ahead to kickstart nature tourism opportunities post COVID 19, theProgram in alliance with the United Nations World Tourism Organization and Colombia’sTourism Ministry launched the Colombia Natural Wealth Award – a contest calling forproposals from every sector with the best initiatives to help transform the sector withinnovative approaches to promote ecosystem conservation. To date, the contest hasreceived more than 1,000 proposals from across the country.

USAID helps to unlock Colombia’s nature tourism potential in a post COVID-19 reality

Overall, Natural Wealth’s nature tourism strategy provides a roadmap to achieve lastingconservation efforts and provide economic alternatives for rural communities. With thiseffort, the Program aims to propel once again Colombia’s rich biodiversity as a means forsustainable development.

Esta publicación se hizo posible gracias al apoyo del pueblo de los Estados Unidos de América, a través de la

Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID). Los contenidos de esta publicación son

responsabilidad de Chemonics International y no reflejan necesariamente la opinión de USAID o del Gobierno de

los Estados Unidos.