Cartagena de Indias has long been Colombia's top destination for international leisure travel, but the city's economic pull and growing infrastructure - coupled with the nation's overall economic growth - are now bringing a surge in business-related travel. Hospitality operators have responded with new hotel stock and meeting spaces.
In centuries past, Cartagena was an important port for a very different type of international business traveler. Founded by the Spanish in 1533, its protected bay welcomed treasure-laden ships from Ecuador and
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The Old City
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Peru, loading them with goods from the nation's interior and sending them on to Cuba, Puerto Rico or Spain. The city flourished as the main Spanish port on the Caribbean coast. A fire in 1552 led to the requirement that all city structures be made of stone, which kept the city well preserved. In 1984 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared much of the walled colonial city a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The city is now Colombia's largest port, an important petrochemical center and a popular meeting and convention location. International arrivals to Cartagena are growing faster than all but one other destination in Colombia, jumping from 6.2% of the nation's total in 2007 to nearly 16% of international arrivals in 2012, according to statistics from Migración Colombia and Proexport, the organization that promotes tourism and foreign investment. Meeting planners are increasingly choosing the city, which in 2011 rose to No. 58 among 300 global cities in the meetings market, according to rankings by the International Congress and Convention Association.
Growth in the Corporate Events Market
Cartagena's increased popularity with business travelers is largely
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Historic city walls
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because of growth in corporate events and conventions, as well as development of the city's port and free trade zone, according to Luís Alfonso Florez Forero, marketing and sales director for the Holiday Inn Cartagena Morros, which opened in 2011. He notes that international trade has been boosted by free trade agreements with the United States, Mexico, Canada and Central America.
The convention market in particular, "is vital because of the growth that it represents for the city," Florez says, adding that tourism bureau officials are "now interested in promoting the city with world-class events, with the value-added [angle] that Cartagena de Indias is a UNESCO World Heritage Site."
Hotels Rise to Meet Business Travel Demand
Responding to demand, Cartagena's inventory of some 9,757 hotel rooms is in the midst of a growth spurt, with nearly 2,700 new hotel rooms planned between 2013 and 2016.
InterContinental Hotels Group, which manages the Holiday Inn Cartagena Morros, will soon expand its brand portfolio in the city. Next year, the company plans to unveil a 250-room InterContinental hotel in the Bocagrande district, the upscale neighborhood that is home to the largest cluster of hotel rooms in the city. The new property will be an anchor for Nao Fun + Shopping, a 215,000-square-foot, mixed-use complex that will include a convention center, casino and residential retail and entertainment components. Also in the works in Bocagrande are Sheraton, Hyatt, Holiday Inn Express and Iberostar properties.
Later this year, a 233-room Radisson will join the Holiday Inn Cartagena Morros in the upscale Morros district, close to the airport.
Historic or Modern Convention and Meeting Spaces
In addition to hotel meeting space, the city offers a variety of convention and private event space, including historic sites, museums
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| Centro de Convenciones |
and beautifully restored theaters. In the Morros district, the Centro Internacional de Convenciones y Exposiciones Las Americas, which belongs to the Las Américas Resort, accommodates up to 4,000.
Larger groups often make use of the Centro de Convenciones Cartagena de Indias, which opened in 1982 in the historic city center and has 65,616 square feet (20,000 square meters) of flexible meeting and event space for up to 2,000 attendees.
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