With great success, the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization 2015 was held in Medellin
The recognition that Medellín received as the most innovative city in the world by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal was more than corroborated when, in 2015, the Antioquia capital was designated as the headquarters of the XXI General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization ( OMT).
This event, which is held every two years, is the most important international meeting of the tourism industry, as it brings together the most prominent personalities of the sector to draw up policies globally.
This was the second time that a Colombian city was chosen to host the event, as it had already been hosted by Cartagena de Indias in 2007.
In its XXI edition, the event, which took place from September 11 to 17, 2015 at the Plaza Mayor convention center in Medellín, was organized by Procolombia, and was attended by more than 800 delegates from 150 countries that They deliberated around the central theme of the Assembly: “The contribution of tourism to inclusive development and social transformation,” according to the National Tourism Fund (Fontur).
The agenda was first level, as it included academic events, forums, meetings, gastronomic shows and even a collective tree plantation.
According to estimates by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, nearly 3,000 visitors, experts, businessmen, students, academics, industry analysts and national and international journalists participated in this program.
The Assembly, which concluded with the meeting of the UNWTO Executive Council, was a success in terms of organization. It was something that was already anticipated, then, according to the newspaper El Colombiano, during the three previous visits made by delegates of the UNWTO, Medellín demonstrated to have all the logistics necessary to celebrate an event of such magnitude.
And it is that the city put its best resources at the service of the event. In fact, the capital of Paisa formed a hotel offer with more than 40 establishments and made available to the attendees the large and modern Plaza Mayor event center, said the newspaper El Tiempo.
Likewise, the Medellín Metro joined the UNWTO General Assembly, being linked as the official transport of the event. For all attendees, the system offered two guided tours per day that departed from Plaza Mayor and had a translator. In addition, so that they could easily move through the Aburrá Valley to tourist sites, the Metro gave delegates a civic card with trips, highlights El Colombiano.
This great event provided a golden opportunity that Medellín did not miss to show its growth, its innovation and its enormous potential.
In addition, the UNWTO General Assembly stimulated national and international tourism in the city, which was already a trend in the country, because by then the sector had a sustained growth of 12.7%, which places tourism as the The country's second largest income generator, over coal, coffee, flowers and bananas, according to Procolombia on its website.
Thus, the event confirmed Colombia as a destination of global tourist interest, thanks to the great diversity of its natural and cultural wealth, and its outstanding infrastructure to receive all kinds of events.
