THE PLACE to be

Can a combination of natural splendor and quintessentially Latin American passion make Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali regular stops for artists on tour across Latin America and a hub of events?

Concerts and events are becoming more frequent in Colombia, with the country becoming a regular stop for musicians on tour in Latin America. It was perhaps the Colombian-born superstar singer-song writer, Shakira, who started the new wave of world-class pop concerts in the country back in 2018. In 2022, and during an iconic show, 16,000 musicians performed the world’s largest concert in Bogotá. Many artists have followed suit. A look at the scheduled concerts for 2024 shows that Colombia will host, among other events, performances by Elsa y Elmar, Pablo Alborán, and Jonas Brothers. It has not always been like this. “During the 1990s and 2000s, only around 18 artists visited the country,” remembers Gabriel García, CEO of Paramo Presenta, an event organizer company, who also adds that his company hosts a similar number of notable artists every few months these days.

Aside from musical performances, Colombia has other offerings in the form of festivals and celebrations. 2024 will see the four-day long Carnaval de Barranquilla, Féria de Cali (Cali Fair), and the ever-popular Estéreo Picnic music festival, which has made a name for itself as one of the biggest alternative music gatherings of Latin America. Given Colombia’s wealth of cultural diversity and folk cultural heritage, more festivals and annual events can be presented to a global audience with some branding efforts.

All this frenzy about events and festivals is happening just when the tourism sector has finally managed to recover from the pandemic. “In 2023, Colombia welcomed a record number of 5.87 million international tourists, compared to 4.2 million in 2019,” according to the country’s tourism board. Moreover, tourism has become an increasingly important source of foreign exchange post pandemic, contributing COP59 trillion (equal to USD15 billion) to the economy in 2022.

Entertainment, along with aviation, hospitality, and food and beverage, make up the backbone of the Colombian tourism sector. The entertainment segment has a symbiotic relationship with the other three sections. It is not surprising that local restaurants, bars, hotels, and airlines have seen their busiest periods during the times of major events such as Estéreo Picnic in March or Barranquilla Carnival in February. “Events with international participation boost tourism across various sectors,” argues the CEO of Paramo Presenta—an entertainment company behind Estéreo Picnic.

With the rise of the entertainment industry, more venues and event promoters have set up shop in Colombia. TBY journalists recently talked to Luis Quintero, general manager of Movistar Arena, one of Bogotá’s leading event venues. “Since its inauguration in 2018, the [arena’s] goal was to host an annual lineup of 75-90 concerts a year,” according to Quintero. And that goal has been achieved: “In 2022, we did 80 concerts, and in 2023, 105,” said Quintero. Thanks to the increasing number of events, venues such as Movistar have been able to attract lucrative sponsorship and advertising deals from brands like “Coca-Cola Colombia, Samsung, American Express, Budweiser, Bavaria, Chevrolet, and Grupo Aval,” according to Quintero.

Given its natural splendor, exotic charm, and fine tropical weather, Colombia is a natural hub for events and entertainment. It is crucial, however, for businesses such as Movistar to take the necessary precautions in terms of sustainability. Otherwise, the country will undermine the very factor which enabled it to become an entertainment hub in the first place. And, fortunately, most businesses are mindful of this fact. “Even during the construction, we were taking into consideration how we could have a better impact on the planet, a reason to design a sustainable building that allowed us to grant the LEED Silver Certification,” says the CEO of Movistar.

There are obstacles, as well. Security, for instance, is among the concerns of some event organizers. TBY recently sat down with Jean Claude Bessudo, CEO of

Aviatur, a company active in different aspects of tourism in Colombia. Bessudo highlighted the importance of security, pointing out that “it is not enough to say we are the most beautiful country in the world, as we need security to underpin the offering. The government knows this, but we need to go beyond the speech and take action”. Incidentally, the government itself has an interest in the entertainment sector. Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo—a leading event venue in Bogotá—is a public-private entity.

Infrastructure presents yet another bottleneck. To become an entertainment hub, Colombia needs not only better security, but also more investment in venues, better hospitality facilities, and more connectivity to the world. Ángela Ruiz, country manager of Atrápalo, put it this way in a recent interview: “Tourism has the potential to become the country’s biggest sector, though that would require a great deal of work and will take time,” adding that “Colombia needs much more infrastructure and training.” Work on the kind of infrastructure for connectivity that Ruiz is referring to is already underway, though it may take some time before it is operational. The New Cartagena Airport with a capacity of 11 million arrivals per year will be awarded soon, while Emirates Airlines has launched flights to El Dorado Airport in Bogotá.

With a larger inflow of passengers to the country and more exciting events taking place throughout the year, the synergy between aviation, entertainment, and hospitality will likely grow, giving momentum to the development of the sector. As for the issue of security which will be central to the development of entertainment tourism, there has been some progress in Gustavo Petro’s administration. By taking a human-rights approach to security instead of a militarized approach, the current government has been partly successful in breaking the cycle of violence. Indeed, the economic benefits of tourism for the Colombian society may also address the root causes of crime such as poverty and lack of economic opportunities.