Luxury Destination Management Company in Colombia

What 10 Years of Telling Colombia’s Story Taught Us

WhereNext Travel began as an award-winning storytelling and destination marketing company before evolving into a luxury DMC. In 2016, we were invited to help Colombia tell a new story. The country was at a turning point. After decades of conflict, intrepid explorers were beginning to rediscover a place that had long been absent from the global travel map. Tourism was growing, but old perceptions had not yet caught up with modern reality.

Around the same time, Narcos became one of Netflix's most-watched series. We believed Colombia's history could not, and should not, be ignored. Our challenge was to broaden the conversation beyond that single story and help both international travelers and Colombians see the country differently.

Colombia is like your multi-talented friend who can fix a car, bake a cake, run a marathon, solve a mathematical proof, and still be the most interesting person at dinner. It does not have a single bucket list icon that defines it. There is no Machu Picchu, no Eiffel Tower, no mountain gorilla encounter, and no Great Pyramid. That makes the country harder to promote, but far more rewarding to explore.

To broaden perceptions, we first had to answer a simple question: Which story could we start with that was uniquely Colombian?

Finding a Story Only Colombia Could Tell

One of the clearest ways we found to broaden Colombia's story was through birds.

Colombia is home to more bird species than any other country on Earth, but the significance of that fact goes far beyond birdwatching. The sheer quantity of birds reflects the country's extraordinary biodiversity, from Caribbean coastlines and Andean cloud forests to tropical grasslands, Pacific rainforests, the Amazon jungle, the páramo, and dry forests.

That diversity extends far beyond nature tourism. It is found in Colombia's cultures, music, cuisine, landscapes, climates, histories, and ways of life. The country changes remarkably quickly. A short flight, a bump in altitude up or down the Andes, or a few hours on the road can place you in an entirely different world.

Designing Human Journeys

But Colombia is different for another reason. International travelers are not the only ones discovering the country for the first time. For decades, conflict prevented many Colombians from exploring large parts of their own homeland.

Today, foreign visitors often find themselves traveling alongside Colombians who are also seeing these places with fresh eyes.

That shared sense of discovery is one of the things that makes Colombia so special.

It is not only the landscapes, the birds, or the extraordinary biodiversity. It is the people you discover the country with.

That human element is what inspires how we design journeys today.

Our challenge in marketing Colombia has always been one of perception.

Every journey we design begins with the same question we asked 10 years ago: How can we help people see the country differently?

The answer has never been a single attraction.

It has always been introducing guests to the remarkable diversity of people, landscapes, and natural history that make Colombia unlike anywhere else.

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