Medellín is the second largest city in Colombia, and the capital of the department of Antioquia; it has more than 2,533,000 inhabitants and spans an area of 105 km2 of urban land and 270 km2 of rural land.
In 2013, Medellín was recognised as the most innovative city in the world by Citigroup, the Urban Institute and The Wall Street Journal. In choosing Medellín, the organisations looked at aspects such as the operation of the transport system (Metro), which reduces CO2 emissions by 175,000 tonnes per year; the outdoor escalators in Comuna 13 in San Javier, which are there to improve sustainability and quality of life; as well as Empresas Públicas de Medellín, a publicly-owned company that has helped to improve education for the resident population and supported the development of sustainable projects.
Medellín has been working for more than 20 years to develop and position the city as a tourist destination and has been successful in ensuring that tourism operations now account for 8% of GDP. In 2020, Medellín was nominated for “World’s Leading City Break Destination” at the World Travel Awards.
| Admission to the Smart Tourism Destinations Programme |
Medellín joined the Smart Destinations project by drawing up the Diagnostic Report and Action Plan needed to turn it into a Smart Destination, which it carried out in December of 2020. |
| Outstanding initiatives
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- Modernisation of the Tourism Observatory towards a Tourism Intelligence Unit: project targeting the management of data and information for the generation of tourism knowledge supported by a technological platform, generating data and prospective analysis through tools to support Medellín‘s strategy as a Smart Destination.
- City Brand: this is a strategy that the city of Medellín has been pursuing to build a brand and an identity rooted in the core values and attributes of the city. This brand will allow the city to promote itself both nationally and internationally, while also helping to improve Medellín’s status as a tourist destination and attract investment to the city.
- This process takes place in three phases:
- Planning:
- Design of the competition
- Public-private city pact for brand adoption
- Competition:
- Launch of the call for companies to submit their proposal
- Choosing the winners
- Implementation: Adoption of the winning brand to promote the city‘s image across all sectors and attract investment
- Medellín Safe Tourist Destination Campaign: campaign to highlight the good practices and actions undertaken by the city and its tourism service providers to improve levels of safety and biosecurity, with the aim of encouraging more tourists to visit the city of Medellín.
- Discover Medellín: The “Discover Medellín” strategy invites inhabitants of the city and national and international tourists to visit the numerous attractions and experiences that the city has to offer across its urban and rural territory, while also encouraging local consumption and supporting the recovery of companies operating in the tourism sector.
- Stimulus Programme for the Sustainability and Reactivation of the Tourism Sector: this programme aims to promote the recovery and reactivation of the tourism sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and over the course of the Municipal Development Plan known as “Medellín Futuro 2020–2023”. Under the initiative, economic incentives will be granted to projects that seek to promote tourism and make the city more competitive.
- Strengthening community initiatives, with a clear focus on creative tourism: building the skills and capacities of people who develop or are associated with community-based tourism in Medellín, and supporting the development of community-based tourism products, with a focus on creative tourism.
- Twenty-four initiatives with potential were identified.
- Three community tourism initiatives were recognised.
- Infrastructure Projects – Universal Path of the Senses: Construction of the Universal Path of the Senses in the Arví Park, featuring seven stations to engage the senses and allow visitors to interact with nature. It aims to be a space that people with or without disabilities can enjoy, by offering universal services and activities suitable for everyone.
- Visitor Experience and Service Centres: Transforming tourist information points into Experience Centres, under an innovative, technological and accessible model aimed at tourists and locals alike. A model that allows for the real-time collection of information and the development of profound experiences at the destination.
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Technical data
VAT number:
No procede Address: Cl. 44 #52 - 165 Postal code: 050001 Telephone: 0057 4 3855555 Region: Internacional Province:
Internacional Population:
Medellín Country:
Colombia Local entity type: Ayuntamiento Date of membership:
17/12/2020 Diagnosis: Sí Diagnosis date:
17/11/2022 Destination Type:
Urbano de interior Population:
2,533,424 Area (km²):
382.00 Density (inhab/km²):
6,643.39
Level in the Network: Nivel 4
