Colombian adventure, nature and culture will play the main role in London

For second year in a row, Colombia will be present at WTM, the most important tourism fair in the United Kingdom, with the representation of PROCOLOMBIA and 19 companies between November 5th ad 8th.

Amaterra, Avianca, Colombia 57, Colombian Journeys, Decameron, Dife Travel, Gema Tours, GHL, Hotel Caribe, Kontour, Large Minority, Natura Travel, Nueva Lengua, Panamericana de viajes, Promotora Neptuno, Quimbaya Tours and Voyage Colombia, with the support of PROCOLOMBIA and the Tourist Promotion Fund of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism, will be presenting their plans and packages before more than 5,000 companies,  187 regions and 24,000 visitors that are expected to attend the fair.

Culture, nature and adventure will be the main tourist products in this edition. They will be represented by exhibits with pictures and actors that will portray characters such as a hiker, a coffee heir, the culture man, the butterfly woman, the bird woman and a bird watcher.

Visitors at the stand will also find a "Palenquera" (colorful fruit street vendor), a coffee house, salsa dancers, and a picture booth with scenarios like Medellin,  the Coffee Triangle, the Amazon region, Bogota, Cartagena,  San Andres and Santa Marta, among others.

As part of the green strategy, PROCOLOMBIA will invite attendees to plant a virtual tree in their behalf, which will be physically planted by the entity in the region of Antioquia. The goal is to surpass 1000 trees.

"In 2011 we had an interesting presence at the fair, which allowed for us to better position Colombia among the British; the United Kingdom is a market with much potential and we still have much to do there. This is a country that sends more than 56 million tourists around the world, and in 2011 we received 25,473 travelers from the region, according to Migración Colombia", stated María Claudia Lacouture, Chairwoman of PROCOLOMBIA.

During the same time as the fair, PROCOLOMBIA will take two coffee haciendas and picture booths on the 8th,  9th and 10th of November to the popular Victoria station of the London Metro and on the 9th, 10th and 11th of November, to Southbank on the Thames bank, for all inhabitants and tourists in the city to have a delicious cup of Colombian coffee and take a picture of several places in Colombia.

The English Tourist

The United Kingdom is the third tourism sender in the world after Germany and the U.S.A., with over 56 million departures abroad according to the National Statistics Office of that country.

According to Euromonitor, British travelers are known for preferring vacation traveling over business trips. 24.7% travel in organized tours, 17.7% with friends and 17.4% with families. Their average expense per trip in 2010 was of 934 dollars.

PROCOLOMBIA has also identified that the British are large consumers of Sun, Beach and Nature products, for which Colombia has an offering that combines them all. Nature is mainly led by Bird Watching and the country with its 1,876 species has become a paradise for travelers in the United Kingdom, one of the largest tourist senders for this segment.

There is also a growing group of Cultural Tourism consumers for those who visit historic, archeological, and heritage sites and wish to get in touch with local customs as their main objective.  Santa Marta,  Medellin, Bogota, Cali and the Coffee Triangle among others.

During the first six months of 2012, the United Kingdom positioned itself with 11,340 travelers, as the sixth sender from Europe to Colombia. These arrivals from the United Kingdom represent 7.5% of the total arrivals of Europeans to Colombia.