Colombia's Airstrip Enhancements Boost Travel To Remote Tourist Spots

Forbes

a day ago

From rainforest to coastline, there's more to Colombia than meets the eye.
Few places can boast of a more monumental shift in travelers' collective consciousness than Colombia. The South American country's warp-speed transformation into a destination du jour unfathomable even just 15 years ago, especially as crime statistics continued to drop from their astonishing peaks in the early 1990s.
From slow burn to all-out boom, travel to Colombia hit record highs in 2024, per a Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism report from early 2025. A nearly double-digit year-over-year increase bringing more than 6.7 million visitors to this diverse country's coasts, mountains and tropical rainforests.
But where exactly are all these new Colombia-bound travelers headed? The answer, it seems, lies increasingly beyond Colombia's still-nascent tourist track. Even as some travelers pack flights to buzzy destinations like the cool, cosmopolitan cities of Cartagena and Medellín, other visitors are increasingly heading to destinations still spoken of in whispers by the lucky few who went there first.
Revitalized airstrips bring access to Colombia's more hard-to-access attractions.
For ProColombia, the nation's tourism board, that's all part of the plan to show visitors the breadth and depth of Colombia that await. Working in lockstep with government priorities to enhance infrastructure in some of the country's more remote regions, ProColombia's new Runways of Hidden Beauty campaign is renewing and revitalizing 20 key airstrips located near little-known destinations around the country, each with its own unbridled tourist potential.
As a record-setting number of visitors venture across the country, bringing what Colombia's MINCIT identified as an astounding $8.34 billion in economic impact in 2024, a 31.4% increase over pre-pandemic levels. It's an opportunity to encourage development in areas of the country that have been previously overlooked.
"With this initiative, we hope the impact goes beyond tourism and becomes a true transformation for the well-being of thousands of communities," says Carmen Caballero, the president of ProColombia. "If we succeed in attracting more travelers to these destinations thanks to better connectivity, their presence could become an unprecedented boost to local economies...[and] allows us to send a message of trust and closeness to both communities and visitors."
Exploring still-untouched landscapes invites visitors to see a new side of Colombia, while also growing local economies.
Currently, runway renovations are underway at five different locations across some of Colombia's most appealing tourist regions: the Greater Caribbean, the Pacific, the Amazon-Orinoco, the Colombian Massif and the Eastern Andes. Set to conclude by December, upgrades will open access for visitors to a number of previously hard-to-reach regions, villages and cities.
Among them is Bajo Baudó, located on the country's Pacific Coast. This less-visited area in the rich, raw region of Chocó is one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet, per the World Wildlife Foundation. It's home to a 775-million-acre protected area preserving the world's wettest rainforests, tangles of mangrove forests and unexpected landscapes that pack a punch. Very few outside visitors have ever heard of it, let alone made it there.
Meanwhile, airstrips in Cumaribo and the nearby Barrancominas will give travelers access to the Matavén Jungle and its Orinoco River, once thought to be the site of the fabled El Dorado. A region on the road to the Colombian Amazon, it's home to numerous indigenous populations and a rich multicultural identity unlike anywhere else in the country.
A bird's-eye view of Colombia's beloved Caribbean coastline.
Upgrades have already been completed at nine of the identified airstrips in the campaign. Now, they receive regular upgrades, maintenance and performance checks as part of the program.
One such site already reaping the benefits of improved access is San Andrés, a white-sand Caribbean island that sits over 450 miles north of Cartagena but is part of Colombia's national territory. The growing popularity of the island has been part of resetting the image of Colombia as a Caribbean destination in its own right, a rebrand started by the coastal city of Cartagena—arguably now the country's most popular destination. Tiny San Andrés even beat out destinations like the Galapagos Islands and Rio de Janeiro to be named South America's best beach destination in the 2024 World Travel Awards.
Another newly improved and now fully operational airstrip is in Nuquí, a still little-visited Pacific Coast destination. Nuquí offers opportunities for surfing, hikes to waterfalls hidden in untouched jungles and whale watching as families of humpback whales migrate through the area between July and October every year.
The newly improved airstrip in Leticia, meanwhile, sits in the deep heart of the Amazon, the prehistoric gem that coats much of South America. Amazon tourism in Colombia still pales in comparison to that of neighboring Peru and Brazil, but increased access is poised to change that.
Added access opens up new travel potential from beaches to tropical rainforests.
For the moment, tourism to these newly accessible sites appears to appeal mostly to Colombians and local visitors. ProColombia reports that among the nine newly revitalized airstrips, between just 1.73% to 2.22% of arrivals are passengers from more distant markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Argentina. However, as access continues, that feels apt to change.
The program works in lockstep with a greater effort to increase flight lift to the South American country in the first place, to keep up with growing demand. Colombia welcomed a record 6.1 million international travelers in 2023 and over 6.7 million in 2024; this year, it looks on track to cross 7 million.
When United Airlines introduced a brand new flight from its Houston hub to Medellín last fall, tickets started to sell out almost immediately. Other airlines like AirCanada have also launched new flights to Colombia, as Colombia's homegrown airline Avianca opens new destinations in U.S. cities like Tampa. Coming soon are the first direct flights from the Middle East to Colombia, with Qatar Airways launching nonstop service from Doha to Bogotá starting this summer.
As the number of international visitors to Colombia continues to spike, it seems unlikely that the appeal of already popular destinations around the South American country will decrease any time soon. Last year, the country's three most popular cities—Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena—received 35.3%, 23.9% and 22.2% of international visitors, respectively, a whopping 81.4% of all international visitors to the country, per MINCIT statistics. Instead, added access to some of the less-crowded and arguably even more appealing spots around the country appears to be a rising tide ready to raise all boats.