Don't stay at the airport! Enjoy the city with 'Stopover Bogotá, love at first race'

This strategy, between Bogotá and Avianca, provides the possibility for travelers who have a 24-hour connection, with the airline, to know the main tourist attractions of the city and to take advantage of interesting promotions. .

Bogotá is preparing to transform its main strength - air connectivity - into a powerful tourist attraction tool with the launch of 'Stopover Bogotá: Amor at first track', a strategy of the District Tourism Institute (TDI), in partnership with Avianca, the airline that currently offers the most connectivity to Bogotá, with a global network of more than 165 routes that connect with 80 destinations in 28 countries.

With the support of the District Development Plan 'Bogotá Camina Segura' and the programme 'Bogotá Ciudad Airport', the strategy is presented as a high-impact initiative to consolidate the Colombian capital as a transit destination in Latin America.

The proposal is clear: to allow international travelers who make connection in Bogotá to stay up to 24 hours at no additional cost in their air ticket and to take advantage of their scale to know the best of the city with special offers in hotels, city tours, restaurants and tourist packages offered by local travel agencies through the Visitbogota.co.

In this way, Bogotá is linked to a global trend - known as "Stopover" - which today successfully adopts capitals such as Lisbon, Dubai and Istanbul, among others. "With Stopover Bogotá we seek more travelers to take advantage of their scale to discover our city, enjoy its diversity and take away a story that inspires them to return. We want a scale to become a tour of the Candelaria, an ajiac-flavored lunch, an afternoon in Monserrate, or a night enjoying the bogotan culture. What was previously lost, today can be a experience that energizes the economy and strengthens the image of the city," said the director of the Bogotá Tourist Office, Andrés Santamaría.

Why Bogotá?

El Dorado International Airport, with more than 355,000 operated flights and 45 million passengers mobilized in 2024, is now the main air connectivity centre in Latin America. From their tracks they take off and land flights to 57 international and 45 national destinations, being a strategic hub between South America, North America and Europe. However, according to data from the Grand Survey of Travellers 2024 of the District Tourism Observatory, 95% of international passengers in transit do not leave the airport. With Stopover Bogotá, the city seeks to reverse this trend, activating express states that will boost the local economy, strengthen the image of Bogotá as a destination and increase tourist spending per visitor.

In 2024, Bogotá received more than 14 million visitors, of which 1,871,956 were international tourists, showing an increase of 8.7% compared to 2023. Tourism generated about 7 billion pesos and more than 106,000 jobs per month, consolidating itself as a key economic engine for the city. Hotel occupancy averaged 61.4 per cent and the daily cost of an international tourist was approximately $100. All this reaffirms that Bogotá has the infrastructure, talent and experience to become a short-scale competitive destination.

Stopover Bogotá: a city experience for up to 24 hours

Through packages designed by certified local operators, travellers can enjoy such tours as:

• Bogotá in 24 hours: visit to the historic center, museums, gastronomy and shopping.
• Taste of the capital: experience in market places and local restaurants.
• Bogotá to the natural: routes along the hills, gardens and green spaces within the city.

Each experience seeks to show that Bogotá is not only a point of passage, but a city that falls in love from the very first moment. Tourists can find the offer of special discounts that the city offers on the official tourism portal Visitbogota.co.

With this strategy, at least 472,000 passengers are expected to opt for the Stopover Bogotá between July 2025 and December 2026, generating income in the order of 40 million dollars only in tourist spending. In addition, airport revenue is estimated to exceed $21.2 million.

Avianca, Allied airline of Stopover Bogotá

Avianca, the airline with the most complete network of routes in Colombia and one of the largest in the region, will be the ally of the Stopover Bogotá programme. Today, the company connects the Colombian capital with more than 40 international destinations and more than 20 nationals. Every day, it operates more than 240 flights to and from El Dorado International Airport, transport more than 32,000 passengers, of which approximately 18,000 travel in connection via Bogotá, reflecting a city that has become a hub par excellence.

In its initial phase, and through the network of Avianca routes, the strategy will focus on 7 priority markets: Lima, Madrid, Miami, Guayaquil, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. The District Tourism Institute, for its part, will carry out an international promotion strategy. With this initiative, it is expected that by the second half of 2025 the total number of passengers leaving the airport will be close to 72,000, generating an impact on the local economy of more than $6 million.

"In Avianca we have been connecting more than 105 years to Bogotá, which is our home, with Colombia and the world. For this reason, it is an honour for us to be part of projects like Stopover Bogotá, which are fundamental to laying the foundations for the future of the city with tourism as a development axis, so that those who have a scale in the city will see the immense appeal they have and want to explore it, while waiting for their next flight. For this to be a reality, it will be very important to continue working with all the actors so that the El Dorado International Airport has efficient air and land-side processes, and thus support the economic development of the capital," said Frederico Pedreira, CEO of Avianca.

Stopover Bogotá is not only a tourism promotion strategy, it is a city vision. An invitation for the world to discover in 24 hours all that Bogotá has to offer: history, gastronomy, culture, art, entertainment, nature and unique experiences in shopping tourism, among others. It will be a first-track love that will motivate them to return.