The Icon Colombia Needs (From the Archives)

Picture yourself in this scenario: you win a contest in which the first prize is to get to visit as many countries as you can in a week. The catch is that you only have 2 hours in each country and you have to pick the city and site you think you’d want to know the most and take only one picture with you on it. Only one.

Say the countries you pick are: Egypt, Peru, Australia, France, Brazil, India and Colombia.

Now take a moment to think about that only site and only city in each country, remember this may be your only chance to be there and that that picture will be the only one available to boast about with your friends and family, proof that allows you to say “I have been there”.

I asked this same question to a bunch of expat friends and 99% of their answers were the same for the first 6 countries:

Egypt: The Pyramids
Peru: Machu Picchu
Australia: The Sidney Opera House
France: The Eiffel Tower
Brazil: Christ Redeemer in Rio
India: The Taj Majal

But then, when we reached Colombia , the answers were something like this:
Er….. Cartagen.. no wait, the coffee thing ..area ..no,no,no …the beaches? Ermmm

Exactly. There’s no symbol, no graphic representation, no icon that says “Colombia” loud and clearly at one glance. But does Colombia need one of those? Or are those icons just good for a post card?

We who live in Colombia and that dedicate ourselves to promoting travel to this amazing country have two main tasks: the first and the hardest one is to help spread the word about how those stereotypes about Colombia being a violent drug filled country are just not true. Unfortunately the first idea that comes to mind to most foreigners when Colombia is mentioned is Cocaine and Pablo Escobar in the worst case and coffee and Juan Valdez in the best one. And although things are rapidly and positively evolving and the general perception of Colombia is changing worldwide – I say “general “because I live first hand and every day that people “in the know” have already changed that perception a long time ago and are investing in various businesses and even moving over here – it is still hard to fight the bad image that some media (and Hollywood ) use to keep selling stories.

The second task, after having convinced our interlocutor that there’s nothing to be afraid of, and that this is actually one of the most beautiful, friendly and diverse lands in the face of earth, is to start explaining WHY almost every foreigner that comes to visit the country doesn’t want to leave. Why is Colombia so magical even for us who have been to many other parts of the world and that have chosen, very consciously, to live here. Where to start? How do you describe something you can only feel?

Many of my traveler colleagues – native Colombian and gringos – agree on the fact that the key to that question lies in the fact Colombia is such a diverse country, that you can hike snow caps, enjoy paradisiacal beaches, live a jungle adventure or trek deserts in the same country and in a week time span. And although that is true , I’m one of the few that disagree about showing that as a “competitive differentiation” to “sell” what Colombia really is… even more , most Latin American countries claim to be  “one of the most diverse countries on earth” (Peru, Chile, Costa Rica and Brazil are the first to pop up on my mind) not to mention countries in other regions of the world like, for instance, New Zealand.

OK… So, diversity might be part of the answer, but we need a stronger argument to convince our skeptic imaginary interlocutor. Another factor that makes Colombia special – the one I personally consider the most important – is how warm, generous and friendly Colombians are. I’m not sure if it’s because Colombia has been “closed” for travelers for so many decades and they don’t really know what to think of these strange “mochileros”, but unlike other countries in South America – including my native Peru – as a traveler that has been many times taken for Gringo I don’t feel that people here are trying to rip me off just because of my accent or my looks. On the contrary I have always found people very keen to help me and to proudly show their customs and sites with no further interest than that. Becoming part of this culture has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life.

So, the experience of discovering the amazing Colombia and to interact with Colombians is one of the other fantastic things you can talk about when raving about Colombia. But being completely honest, this is the kind of feeling that many foreigners develop when they fall in love with their new home-countries. I’m trying not to be biased by my love for Colombia here – although I’m pretty sure that people in Colombia are indeed absolutely special and I have never found so many people sharing this opinion – but that’s something you can’t really perceive until you’re here, so it’s something very difficult to get across.

 

The diversity and the people; these are the things that make Colombia magical. That also implies of course all the unique landmarks we can find here: the magnificent Tayrona beaches, the mysteriously enchanting streets of Cartagena, the surprisingly modern and multicultural Bogota, those otherworldly landscapes in the Cocora Valley that leave you just breathless… As a matter of fact, as I think about the Colombia I know and love dozens – no – hundreds of images (sanagustinarchaeologicalparktheloscityboteroplazainmedellinbeachesoftolucocoravalleythe strretsofcartagenalacandelaria) flood my mind. But there’s still no one unique image that shouts “Colombia!”

 

Colombia needs to officially choose and promote one landmark as their icon, just as Peru has Machu Picchu or Argentina the Buenos Aires Obelisk; those icons are used to get travelers to all their other important destinations. A symbol for Colombia is one of the important steps that have to be taken in a macro plan to get this still undiscovered country to the next level. The industry here is still in its infancy and we (travel professionals, hotel owners, governmental representatives) have an almost unique chance to do it right and responsibly in order to attract more travelers and spread the word about our beloved country. The Colombian tourist boom will happen anyway, we are absolutely sure of that; So it is now that all of us riding the first wave , united, need to make all the efforts needed to turn Colombia into a authentic travelers – not tourists – destination.

So if you have any idea about which site do you think should be Colombia’s icon drop us a line, they don’t only have to be existing landmarks, because like in the case of the Opera House in Sydney …. you can always build one 😉

To be continued …

JL