Medellín, recognised as a “Creative Friendly Destination” by the Creative Tourism Network®, created its municipality-wide creative tourism network at the end of 2022.
This initiative is the result of an alliance between the Medellín City Council and the Antioquia Technology Centre (CTA), which aims to provide technical assistance, generate knowledge transfer, and create spaces for collaboration. The aim is to implement actions to combine tourism practices, tradition, and innovation in order to strengthen the city’s tourism ecosystem. The Culture Secretariat’s E-CREA Network (Network of Spaces for the Creation and Exhibition of the Arts) will also be part of the creative tourism network.
With 26 cultural and tourist experiences spread throughout the city, creativity will be highlighted as a guiding principle for generating social and economic development, with community participation being promoted.
The experiences in the network have been carefully observed in order to identify their most representative characteristics, such as location, public presentation and practices, among others. The aim was to identify the challenges of each one and to develop actions to improve and strengthen them.
“We are very pleased that the E-CREA network is participating [in this initiative] and that the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Culture are joining forces to promote creative tourism. This is a commitment to responsible and immersive tourism, in which people can live and experience how, through culture, Medellín has gone from a violent city to a city of hope, dreams and working together; a city committed to peace, educational and cultural transformation, and to boosting the creative economy,” said the Secretary of Culture, Álvaro Narváez.
Among the tourist experiences offered by the network, those related to culture and creativity, the city’s memory, art and gastronomy stand out.
“We belong to the creative tourism network because of the good practices and the fact that we show a different face of our city. We invite everyone to join us and visit our spaces, our neighbourhoods, to get to know the other side of Medellín and its people. We are proud to be part of this network because we have been able to meet other organisations that have the same objective as us, to show the Medellín that is on the hill, that is in the mountains”, said Jefferson Montoya, director of the “Movimiento Urbano” art training school in municipality 8.
Medellín’s vision and dynamism in favour of community development was recognised in 2022 by the Creative Tourism Network® in the eighth edition of its awards, which recognise companies, projects and destinations that promote the alliance between culture, creativity and tourism in all its forms and transmit their positive values. The city won the award of the Best Strategy for Creative Tourism Development.
