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Promoting Sustainable Nature Tourism

The project aims to utilise nature tourism in order to generate alternative income for local communities and mitigate deforestation and conserve biodiversity in the Santa Marta region. The National Development Plan includes the Tourism Sector Plan 2018-2022 "Tourism: the purpose that unites us", which seeks to improve Colombia's competitiveness as a tourist destination. This shall be achieved based on initiatives to strengthen productivity, the generation of value and co-responsibility among the actors in the tourism sector, and the country’s positioning in national and international markets. In this way, the Tourism Sector Plan and the present initiative are aligned in the search for the strengthening of territorial planning and management to develop nature tourism in a sustainable manner. The emphasis lies on protected areas and strategic ecosystems, aiming at the development of infrastructure for the promotion of high-value tourism and specialised products.
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santa marta, colombia
11.2403547
-74.2110227
Colombia
Project duration
2021 - 2022
Financed by
  • Inter-American Development Bank

The project

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region is renowned for its natural beauty and biodiversity. In Nature Tourism, products and services focus on sustainability and centre around a natural attraction such as a forest, waterfall, or lake. This kind of tourism tends to attract visitors who are environmentally conscious; they value the natural attributes of the region and are vocal about sharing relevant information with others. The project aims at promoting nature tourism initiatives, emphasising science tourism as a strategy for conserving biodiversity and reducing deforestation in Colombia. 

Project implementation encompasses two components:

1. Designing a tourism product based on nature tourism in Santa Marta and its surroundings 

First, the offered tourist attractions will be analysed along with the demand and client characteristics. In addition, the environmental conditions will be examined. After the analysis, strategies for developing tourism activities will be designed. These will generate economic alternatives income for the population and contribute to the prevention of deforestation. This assessment will be followed by the design of strategies for developing science tourism activities in the prioritised area, ensuring no deforestation in the territory, protecting critical ecosystems, and generating economic alternatives for the population.

2. Implementing differentiated and high-value tourism products

Local actors benefit from capacity building and will be made aware of the potential of nature tourism. They will be supported to manage the territory as a sustainable tourist destination. 

Swisscontact is liaising with local and national actors to implement this project and monitor its effect in reducing deforestation, protecting the ecosystems, and generating income opportunities for the local communities.