Coffee Cultural Landscape in the Race to Become the Eighth Wonder of the World

The Colombian Coffee Cultural Landscape region aspires to become the eighth wonder of the world, in a contest organized by the specialist tourism website, Virtual Tourist, which is very popular in North America and Europe.

This destination, which brings together the departments of Caldas, Quindio, Risaralda and north Valle del Cauca, is competing with another 330 destinations for the votes of web surfers, which will be used to decide which destination should be added to the list of wonders of the modern world, alongside the Taj Mahal in India and Machu Picchu in Peru.

From June 3 to September 30, one can support the Coffee Cultural Landscape, which according to the website with more than one million active users, " invites you to live the traditional coffee process from the seed to the cup, along with exceptional green landscapes, welcoming people and magical experiences."

The latter are the central axis of the tourism campaign, " Colombia is Magical Realism" , which has been promoted internationally since April.

" Global trends indicate that tourists increasingly look for destinations where they can carry out multiple activities that satisfy many different interests. The Coffee Cultural Landscape meets this requirement, as those who visit it have access to five of the eight tourism products that the country offers: adventure, nature, culture, luxury and conferences," said Maria Claudia Lacouture, PROCOLOMBIA president.

With the entity's support, this region's tour operators display their catalog of novel and different experiences in more than 30 countries. For example, traveling over the coffee plantations in a hot air balloon or in the Cocora valley, walking under 100-year-old palm trees, the tallest in the world (60 meters).

Its attractions and uniqueness have made the Coffee Cultural Landscape a hub for welcoming international tourists. While in 2009, arrivals in Caldas, Quindio and Risaralda amounted to 29,798, last year they reached 32,588, which indicates a growth of nine percent, according to information from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism with statistics from Migracion Colombia.

If this destination is chosen as the eighth wonder of the world by Virtual Tourist users, it will be the second world recognition to be received by this destination. As in 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared it as a World Heritage Site.