The effects of social media in tourism.

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Going deeply in the Colombian topic, media has helped the encouraging of tourism from and towards it. The history of tourism begins since de first world war, but for academic reasons, this essay will star since the period of the ex-president Alvaro Uribe Velez; he had the concern that Colombia was not a safe place for the foreign people, and also for the ones who live in the national territory. That’s why his governmental planning was called “seguridad democrática”. Is necessary to say that Colombia is a territory with marvelous -privileged- geographical location with a wide natural biodiversity and cultural attractive. These inherent characteristics undoubtedly make of this country a place that could participate actively in the international tourism with great benefits because of its comparative advantages.

The development of the campaign follows a flexible code, which allows the incorporation of all the stakeholders involved through a shared brand-management system. It also allows for the brand to be associated with personalities, national and foreign, who best embody the values that the country wants to project. As for the spin off tourism slogan, the aim is to change the idea of “I don’t want to go to Colombia” for “I don’t want to leave Colombia”. By facing up to the implicit question “But isn’t it risky going to Colombia?” rather than avoiding it, the wording helps overcome any fear that might arise from being invited to visit the country.[a]

Since the beginning of the ex-president Uribe’s period, the security became the central point of his government, with this he wanted to increase the investment in the territory; that included non-only monetary investments, it included tourism investments. That’s why the WTO said that

Colombia was capable of designing a communication strategy to make the new national reality known and to create a new country image that overcomes the stereotypes and prejudices that had been formed over the course of the years of conflict and that were disseminated globally by the mass media[b].

In order to change the stereotypes, that not only the foreign had, but the image that the native people do, the country was able to create two campaigns that definitely change everything. With the slogan “Colombia is passion” and “Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay” the worldwide image of this country had change; the results are seen in the growth that Colombia had in comparison with the world growth. Since the 2000 to the 2010 the world tourism growth was of the 3.2% while the Colombian growth was of the 10.6%,[c] that let shows that the governmental plan of the ex-president and the campaigns helped with the changing of the perspective that the world had.

A lesson that this two brands shows is that tourism it’s imperative not only for economic reasons, it’s necessary for showing the world the competitive advantages that one country has, the image of a rich place in resources, nature, and all of this, being resumed in the image that one place gives to the others, that’s why social media must be present in all the topic, because selling a good place, shows stability, peace, safety as those campaigns did.

The strengthening of Colombian tourism needs more efforts coming either from government or private organizations. “Creating a country brand is an integral and substantial part of the effort needed to develop a national economy: increasing exports, attracting investments, establishing new businesses and companies, boosting the arrivals of tourists, and the recruitment of skilled immigrants.” [d] which encourage the development of both in the economic and the advertisings fields of politics directed to offer the world a positive and attractive image of the country. The measures adopted should permit the progress not only in the esthetics form but in the improvement of framework as well, liaising with the mitigation of the poor social conditions of the population which conflict for decades in the country. It is obvious that our tourism industry could quickly thrive if it’s surrounded by pleasant, safe and civilized environment.

On the other hand, Colombian competitive advantages in the tourism field shows that the fauna and flora, the natural wealth, are of the greatest importance and turns the country into one more suitable place to develop the “Eco-Tourism“. This particularly means a place where tourists could visit and enjoy the marvelous forest and landscape purposely learning from it, the respect for the cultural diversity and care of the environment deserves. As the effect of this, Colombia has the pleasure and the big opportunity to have some of their places in the UNESCO’s list; this is another competitive advantage that with the pass of the time had made a suitable place for tourism.

Human and Natural Resources: occupational training, the aforementioned natural resources as well as cultural resources (1128 monuments and sites have been declared as assets of cultural interest and 4 have been included on the World Heritage list: the Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments of Cartagena de Indias; San Agustín Archaeological Park; National Archaeological Park of Tierradentro, and Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox and 2 more on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Masterpieces, the Carnival of Barranquilla and the Cultural Space of the Palenque of San Basilio) as well as fostering the perception of tourism as an instrument for development on the part of Colombian society. [e]

As previously said the ecotourism in Colombia has taken a huge part of the tourism because the Medias has shown that this is a place for a natural contact, that nature is the strongest point of it, and recognized by the UNESCO, making of the country one of the places that every tourist should visit.

Indeed mass media has helped with the growth of tourism in Colombia; the effect of media is consequence of the efforts of each government, because the creation of the two brands was an idea that the state had, and that were spread by the media. Another effort that the government had made is the progressive elimination of visa requirements. As previously mentioned it is required to display political and advertising policies well oriented to persuade the population of our good national tourism products being offered at the time. It is a long haul, prickly and arduous to go, this is the price to pay, but in the end it is worthwhile and payable, if we can get a privilege position in the world of international commerce.

Communication is not needed to make the country known, but to correct a distorted image through an information campaign that is deliberate, planned and sustained, putting forward the positive elements