For a different tourism that allows us to take the leap
Colombia’s energy consumption is fueled by a vast hydroelectric network supported by some thermoelectric plants. This circumstance protects the consumption of homes, companies and industries against climate change unless the country’s rainfall regimes are seriously disrupted, as happened at the beginning of 2024. But Colombia’s exports are based on the extraction of fossil materials. like oil and coal. Exploiting them is like taking from the depths of the earth and history destroyed worlds, burned in other geological eras, and putting them to contaminate the air, seas and territories of the current world. Many governments and multinationals around the world persist in the exploitation of fossil fuels, due to their great short-term profitability, due to cultural inertia or because of the influence peddling of those who benefit economically. This despite the fact that its intensive use is the great cause of global warming.
The current government of Colombia, despite its many contradictions, mistakes and entanglements, has proposed decarbonizing the economy to help confront climate change and one of its central bets has been tourism. The proposal is not foolish if one reviews the visitor and tourism revenue figures of some nations. In 2019, before the pandemic, France received almost 120 million tourists, the most visited country in the world. Mexico was third, with more than 50 million tourists. In 2019, total tourism income was close to 9 trillion (US) dollars and has already recovered after the pandemic.
The peace agreement with the FARC, the pacification of many regions of the country, the investments of the last decade in airport infrastructure and roads, the rise of cultural expressions such as music, the urban renewal of cities such as Barranquilla, Cartagena and Bogotá and, Perhaps above all, Colombia’s great cultural vitality combined with its diverse and wonderful landscapes may allow the country to finally receive significant levels of tourism and compete in good conditions with others such as Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic or Panama. Some neighboring destinations that shined for years and received large volumes of visitors have experienced serious political crises that have tarnished their many attractions: Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina.
These circumstances and others allowed 2023 to be a record year in terms of tourism to Colombia. 5.8 million foreign tourists visited us, there are already 1.4 million workers in the sector and the income from tourism is already beginning to be compared to what the country receives from the export of some fossil fuels. Colombia or some of its cities or landscapes have been appearing in the lists of renowned publications such as the New York Times and Lonely Planet. And if you wander through the tourist areas of Cartagena, Santa Marta, Bogotá, Medellín, or even Nuquí and Inírida, you will already see many foreign tourists.
In principle, this may justify a certain optimism: it is not impossible to abandon or reduce the exploitation of harmful fossil fuels and replace that income with that of tourism, the ‘industry without chimneys’. But like everything in life, things are not black and white. In fact, recent scandals about sex tourism in cities like Medellín or Cartagena show that tourism is not a perfect industry. It is already happening in Thailand, which has tried to contain sex tourism to wonderful destinations such as Phuket or Pattaya, with little results. On the other hand, cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona or Venice experience serious problems caused by their great success in attracting tourists: exacerbated drug consumption and trafficking, expulsion of residents due to rising rent and food costs, congestion unbearable public space, destruction and exoticization of local cultures, unstable employment associated with tourist seasons. The inhabitants of these places are uniting to demand restrictions on the flow of tourists, qualification of the types of tourists they are trying to attract, and regulation of digital platforms such as AirBnB that lead real estate owners to prefer tourists over locals.
Academic researchers such as Mexican Ángeles López and Gustavo Marín, assigned to the interesting field of Tourism Studies, are concerned about what they have been finding: the majority of tourism income does not stay in the destination country but goes to large companies. multinationals in the sector. Tourists pay tickets and packages to these companies that subcontract to local operators for minimum prices. Tourists do consume locally, but the bulk of their money never reaches the country they visit.
Taking a closer look, some researchers are beginning to be suspicious of the lists of tourist destinations suggested by the media and social networks. Although sometimes these lists are the product of intrepid and enlightened travelers who travel the world ready to discover the new magical place, other times they are the result of arduous negotiations between tourist emporiums, airlines and governments, which define rates and tax exemptions. The novel tourist destination that we believe we discover has actually been predefined by economic and political interests that highlight it above many others. John Urry, one of the great academics of Tourism Studies, said that “our experiences are structured by the preexistence of cultural images generated by cinema, television, literature, the press, music, videos.” The media and social networks, guided by multinationals and governments and their strategic business plans, install these tourist destinations in our dreams.
So, should we stay with an economy based on the extraction of fossil fuels since tourism would actually be a mirage, a trap?
Many tourism researchers still think that it is possible to promote a different kind of tourism, one that is not another form of extractivism, one that benefits local communities, does not expel them from their territories, or devastate their ecosystems. Well-thought-out and organized tourism can promote the revitalization of local identities, the appreciation of customs and spaces. It can enable the recovery or maintenance of places, contribute to the empowerment and creativity of local inhabitants. It can also promote interculturality, dialogue between differences, learning and productive hybridization. I hope our current government bets on this different tourism and persists in decarbonizing our economy.
