As part of the efforts to continue supporting the consolidation of the economic reactivation of companies, the Bogota Chamber of Commerce (CCB) is opening the second version of the Economic Reactivation Program for the Tourism sector.

This is a strategy that seeks to strengthen business capabilities to identify opportunities for innovation and generate differentiated value propositions based on customer needs and market trends; develop skills in entrepreneurs for the construction of business strategies that allow them to appropriate new digital channels and promote the articulation of the actors in the value chain of the sector and generate spaces for business and interaction.

Through the program, entrepreneurs and businesswomen will receive benefits such as participating in an innovation route for the strengthening and sophistication of their offer; the possibility of being one of the 100 companies that will receive support in the process of insertion into digital channels; access to workshops, labor certifications and free training; and the possibility of applying to participate in commercial spaces.

To assist companies interested in being part of the program, the CCB has made available the website, www.ccb.org/turismo, where they can register and will be contacted via email to begin the process of linkage in the attention route. Likewise, a series of free contents and a free toolkit for self-management and self-training by the participants have been made available on this page. The requirements to participate in this program are: to be a company providing tourism services, to have a valid commercial registry and, for specific activities, the company must have a valid national tourism register.

Juan Carlos González, Vice President of Competitiveness of the CCB, reiterates that "for 2022, the Bogota Chamber of Commerce continues with its Economic Reactivation Program for the tourism sector, which in its first version in 2021, managed to benefit 929 companies with different services and accompany 247 of these in the implementation of digital solutions and business wheels, with an average increase in sales of 47%".

The dynamics of the sector

• In Bogota and the Region there are 9,617 active tourism services companies, of which 95.8% are micro and small companies and 9.3% are located outside Bogota (Commercial Register, 2021).

• In 2021, the number of companies in Bogota and the Region grew by 6%, compared to 2020. However, it is still 14.2% below the number of companies in the sector in 2019.

• As of November 2021, the sector generated 188,855 direct jobs.

The flagship programs of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce

The CCB's commitment for 2022 is to continue implementing programs to contribute to the strengthening and consolidation of the reactivation of several of the sectors that were strongly affected by the pandemic. Thus, in addition to this new version of the program focused on the tourism sector, five (5) new programs will be launched this year that will benefit companies in the real estate, energy efficiency, beauty and wellness, drugstores and health food stores, and pharmaceutical exports segments.

The economic reactivation program for the tourism sector is in addition to those that have been implemented since 2021, to support the economic reactivation of sectors such as fashion; creative industries; health; gastronomy; and digital, financial and logistics solutions.