Tourism flourishing in Colombia

Colombia may host some 3.3 million tourists by the end of 2012 and expected the figure to "easily" rise to four million in 2014, a Colombian export official said in Madrid on 25 September. Juan Gabriel Pérez, head of Spain for ProExport told a gathering of travel agents that the tourist sector had in "recent years" grown 10 per cent a year compared to a global average of four per cent; he said Colombia had overcome the insecurity that formerly deterred tourists from visiting, El Economista reported. He cited Spaniards as the main group of European tourists in Colombia, with a five-per-cent rise in their number in January-July 2012. Pérez said Colombia would double the size of its stand at FITUR 2013, Madrid's annual travel fair, compared to 2012.