A project in the Bronx and another in Choachí seek to promote tourism and community development through community tourism.

Claudia Botero and Yan Carlos Sierra live their days 41 kilometers apart. She in Choachí and he in Bogotá, specifically in the Bronx, a place so long stigmatized that now seeks to show that it does not have a single face.

Claudia and Yan Carlos are united by the desire to promote and protect their territories, turning them into attractive places for visitors who want to visit, enjoy and respect them. She is an industrial designer and “mountaineer” -as she defines herself-, she changed her city life for a place in the mountain range, from where, with her partner, she operates a travel agency, Explora Verde, specialized in nature tourism and has a hostel, Refugio Explora Verde, where she receives tourists from all over the world. He is a community leader who lived on the streets for five years after arriving in Bogotá from Caucasia, Antioquia, displaced by violence.

These initiatives are united by a common goal: to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of these tourist destinations.

The Choachí case is part of Destinos + Competitivos + Sostenibles, an initiative of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce (CCB), the Swiss Foundation for Technical Development Cooperation (SwissContact), ACOTUR, FONTUR and the Vice Ministry of Tourism. This project seeks the sustainable development of the municipality, as well as the economic and commercial promotion of the different tourism operators in the area, through a process of characterization, analysis and planning of the destination.

In the case of the Bronx, the Tourism and Creative and Cultural Industries Clusters, led by the CCB, are working on the structuring and implementation of a process to strengthen community tourism experiences, as well as micro-enterprises and community actors, through workshops and co-creation spaces that will provide better capacities and skills in the provision of tourism services. With an articulated work with the Gilberto Álzate Foundation - FUGA, the localities of Los Mártires, Santa Fe and La Candelaria will benefit.

In the Bronx there are already three mapped routes that are culturally and community based. The one led by Yan Carlos is called Huellas de Resistencia (Traces of Resistance). “Its name says it, we are going to walk the territory in a different way than we did before, showing its working people, its history, memory, living and non-living heritage, as well as its material and non-material knowledge,” explains Yan Carlos.

Claudia, for her part, points out the relevance of the meetings that have taken place as part of the training process that seeks to empower her territory. “We are learning, but we also know each other among the people of the area and so it is easier for us to work together to make it known and also to protect it from uncontrolled tourism,” concludes the woman.