Thinking of beach tourism in Colombia is synonymous with Cartagena, Santa Marta and San Andrés. The most attractive tourist destinations for nationals and foreigners arriving in the country.
However, currently Antioquia, where tourism stands out for its mountain plans, rivers and visits to the capital, is working on a campaign that wants to attract a portion of travelers to the almost 300 kilometers of beach that the region has in Urabá.
The Secretariat of Tourism of Antioquia has invested more than 8,000 million pesos in planning strategies of municipal agreements for the elaboration of local tourism plans and the development of sustainable projects.
In Urabá, with investments supported by Fontur and the Vice Ministry of Tourism, it has invested more than 2,000 million pesos in the Arboletes malecom and the restructuring of the sweet beach in Turbo and the Necoclí beaches.
For Sergio Roldán Gutiérrez, Secretary of Tourism of Antioquia, the department’s sea has never been on anyone’s radar as an option to spend vacations.
The strategy, ‘Antioquia Has Sea and is Caribbean’, seeks to make the destination visible through three components important: the proximity to Panama, Biodiversity routes that do not exist in another part of the world and a marine biology estuary that is generated through the mouth of the Atrato River at the point of entry from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.
“It is an option for scientific tourism. Culturally, the wealth of Urabá is great thanks to gastronomy, crafts and bullerengue, elements that make it an important destination to explore”, said the Secretary.
As environmental projects, in Arboletes, famous for the mud volcano, work is being done to keep the approximately 1,550 meters of beach clean of garbage, plastics and wood that arrive from the communities that live on the banks of the Atrato River.
To achieve this, mothers who are heads of households get up every day to go to the beaches to clean ‘the house’ so that the few tourists who arrive find a pleasant and safe environment.
“It is a project led by the Arboleteras Women’s Association, we are 18 people who for 20 days in a row from 6 to 10 in the morning we do this beautiful and hard work,” says Luz Stella Valencia, who is part of the team.
The strong currents of the sea carry to Arboletes what today is the raw material for the manufacture of articles such as t-shirts, hats and pieces of wood painted by artists from the region.
Every month about 50,000 kilos of wood and up to 10 tons of plastic bottles are collected, which gave rise to small companies that today sell their products online.
Necoclí, Turbo, San Juan de Urabá and Arboletes join a campaign to make themselves known.
Googling the word Urabá generates complexities and confusion, the urabeños appear, the clan of the gulf, and drug trafficking; as well as the migrants in Necoclí and Turbo, negative appellations
This is the case of Salvando Mares, a green and creative enterprise that takes advantage of solid waste such as plastic and glass to turn it into art.
“Cleaning the beaches is sometimes not the solution, it goes further, it is an educational issue. If we go to the beach, let’s not throw away the bottle, we believe that teamwork is key to achieving the goals”, says Sebastián Serna, one of the founders of the organization that works for the environment, and who invites Colombians to follow them through social networks so that they buy the products made from converting plastic into textile thread to create caps and t-shirts that are sold for 50,000 pesos, used to continue financing the entire project. On the other hand, there is Madera Salada, a project of three women who saw in the environmental impact, caused by the accumulation of wood throughout the Antioquia coast, an opportunity to generate income and employment in the municipality, turning the wood into pieces and furniture. unique.
Melanie Méndez, coordinator of the exploratory Taller Madera Salada, defines entrepreneurship as a perfectly imperfect experience with a taste of the sea and the beach, “luckily for us We have achieved a great opportunity to transform a problem into business”.
For Melanie, those who buy her products are not only bringing a table or a cup holder, but also a part of the history of Urabá in a unique piece.
Many territories in the world had to devise campaigns and change their names in order to advertise the different tourist destinations given the stories of pain caused by violence.
In the case of the ‘Antioquia has sea’ strategy, the Governor’s Office has defined a schedule to carry out this project.
“Searching the word Urabá in Google generates complexities and confusion, the first thing that appears are the urabeños, the clan of the gulf, and drug trafficking; as well as the migrants in Necoclí and Turbo, a lot of negative appellations regarding the word Urabá. For this reason, in this enlistment phase, while all the disagreements that exist in the public order part are delimited, that by 2024 there should no longer be any problem, the word Urabá will not appear in the brand Antioquia has Sea and is Caribbean ” Roland added.
The official stressed that until the 4G road strategy, which connects the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic, is launched, ‘Antioquia has a sea’ will be the slogan they will promote.
Antioquia has sea, awareness and responsible tourism
The Ministry of Tourism advances in the consolidation of tourism development
With the intention of positioning Antioquia as a tourist destination and generating economic development through this practice in the department’s subregions, the Government of Antioquia created, in February 2021, the Tourism Secretariat.
During the first year of management, it has executed 30 projects that have contributed to the strengthening of infrastructure and tourism planning processes in the different municipalities of Antioquia.
The projects and strategies carried out during this first year, and which had an investment of close to 8,000 million pesos, also contributed to the economic reactivation based on responsible and sustainable tourism.
“We went from having 16 municipalities with experts in tourism to 86, we consolidated 42 tourist products in the department, we managed to go from 16 municipal tourism plans to 39, in addition to the implementation of the flagship projects of the Secretariat”, assured Sergio Roldán Gutiérrez, Secretary of Tourism.
Among the most important projects that have been carried out in this first year are: Hotel Escuela, with an impact on 370 students in 26 municipalities to enhance tourism competitiveness through the qualification and development of human talent; Experimental Antioquia, with the design of four tourist routes in the subregions and their respective tourism products, and ‘Antioquia Has Sea’, an initiative that seeks to promote sustainable tourism, environmental conservation and impact the Urabá subregion in three dimensions : culture, biodiversity and opportunities.
JAIVER NIETO ALVAREZ
PHOTOJOURNALIST OF THE TIME
MEDELLIN
