Healthcare opportunities in tech-friendly Colombia

Colombia reassures medical tourists

Travel - and medical travel - to Colombia has grown in importance in recent years. Many arrive for healthcare services in Bogotá, Cali, Bucaramanga and Medellín from nearby Caribbean islands, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador. They have been coming from the United States, too, where accreditation organisations are promoting Colombian health services.

While the pandemic has hit the nation's tourism hard, one-third of Colombia's population has already received at least one shot of a Covid vaccine and important new measures have been introduced to reassure international travellers.

As recently as December 2020 a new law was passed (2068) aiming to regulate key aspects related to the promotion of Colombian tourism, including health travel.

 To minimise Covid-19 transmission as much as possible, meanwhile, and generate trust among travellers, Colombia introduced a biotourism safety seal - the first country in Latin America to do so.Bearing the words “Check In Certificado”, the seal was created by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism in May 2020.

Its launch encourages any business complying with biosafety protocols, whether an airline or tourism service, to display voluntarily the seal. It has furthermore received international endorsement by the World Travel Organization.