Cartagena: Agrowing luxury travel destination

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Colombian port town Cartagena continues to improve its thriving tourism industry, according to a press release from the city's tourism corporation.

A meeting of the Tourism Corporation reviewed the progress of the city's quality and competitiveness of the tourism sector and found that it showed progress across the board.

"Cartagena is on the right course in tourism. The message is very positive and we saw that through the hard work of the Corporation the goals have been met, for example, more tourists coming to this city," said Alicia Saenz de Marenco, secretary general of the municipality.

The city has supported numerous initiatives concerning the training of people who work in the tourism industry, such as hotel workers, taxi drivers, tourist guides and street vendors.

So far, 21 hotels have agreed to a standardized code of ethics, and another 19 are in the process of doing so. Furthermore, eleven hotel projects are currently under way which will add 2,500 rooms to help house the ever growing number of tourists who come to the coastal city.

The city has been promoted internationally at eight tourism fairs recently and representatives from Cartagena have attended eight more tourism forums throughout Colombia, helping other cities in tourist promotion in the process.

The meeting of the Tourism Corporation also resulted in the making of plans for the management of Cartagena's beaches.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of the meeting, which reveals the work and the tourism goals for the city ... We will continue working for Cartagena to keep it well positioned in all areas," said Luis Ernesto Araujo Rumi, CEO of the Tourism Corporation Cartagena de Indias.