Economic impact of papal visit in Colombia

The visit of Pope Francisco to Colombia will not only mean a great spiritual event for the Catholics of the country but also an injection into the Colombian economy, taking into account the pilgrims who will visit the country between 6 and 10 September 2017.

It is estimated that the National Government will allocate US $ 9.6 million dollars from the General Treasury of the Nation for the logistics of events in the four cities that Francisco I will visit: Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Villavicencio. According to Father Camilo Bernal, financial director of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, estimates that for the visit of the Pope, the resources they plan to invest, with the help of donations from parishioners and private enterprise, are over one million dollars.

Small shops, air and land transport are among the main businesses that move with the pre-trip in September. The tourism sector is one of the most benefited, and with it items such as restaurants, shopping centers will have a good sales behavior, since it is clear that many people are going to arrive from other countries for this visit, of Mexico, Brazil or Peru. And many other people will move to the interior of the country to see the Pope during his tour of the cities.

Trade has also sought ways to generate more resources in the midst of this juncture. In the streets of the different cities that Pope Francisco will visit, there are bibles with the image of the religious, t-shirts, hats, camandulas, prayers, poems, keyrings, glasses, prints and books, among other elements.

In Bogotá according to projections of Cotelco, Hotel Association of Colombia, the hotel occupation during the visit of the Pontiff could be more than 85%. The religious tourism will be able to represent for the capital, the visit of more than 700,000 people, coming from Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Huila and Tolima. About 23,000 pilgrims of other nationalities are expected to travel to Bogota. The city expects revenues of US $ 30 million dollars, represented by the expenses made by city residents, visitors to the region and tourists.

Villavicencio expects to receive 500,000 people. The municipal administration calculates that each visitor invests at least 200 dollars between lodging, food and transportation.

As for Medellín, an occupation of 90% is expected with an estimated 200,000 people who could be generating income of around 22.4 million dollars.

Cartagena is expected to receive 100,000 national and international tourists for this event, with influx of cruise tourists, which would give the city a daily gross income of $ 5.1 million.

Without a doubt, the arrival of Francisco I is an opportunity to feed the voices of hope among Colombians, and to give an extraordinary boost to the expectations of economic actors in Colombia. It is very likely that the papal visit is the additional «counter-cyclical» factor that the economy needed to take off definitively.