Bogotá, in Partnership with Avianca, Launches Stopover Tourism Program for Travelers Connecting Through the El Dorado Airport Hub

Bogotá is preparing to transform its main strength – air connectivity – into a powerful tool for tourist attraction with the launch of ‘Stopover, Amor a primera pista’ which means “Stopover, Love at First Landing” a strategy of the District Institute of Tourism (IDT), in alliance with Avianca, the airline that currently offers the greatest 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 ‘Bogotá Airport City’ program, the strategy is presented as a high-impact initiative to consolidate the Colombian capital as a mandatory transit destination in Latin America. The proposal is to allow international travelers who connect in Bogotá to stay up to 24 hours at no additional cost on their air ticket and take advantage of their stopover to get to know the best of the city with special offers on hotels, city tours, restaurants and tourist packages offered by local travel agencies through the Visitbogota.co website.

With this initiative, Bogotá is joining a global trend – known as  a “Stopover” – that has now been successfully adopted by capitals such as Lisbon, Dubai, and Istanbul, nearby Panamá City, among others. “With Stopover Bogotá, we are looking for more travelers to take advantage of their stopover to discover our city, enjoy its diversity, and take away a story that inspires them to return. We want a stopover to become a tour of Candelaria, a lunch with an ajiaco flavor, an afternoon in Monserrate, or a night enjoying the culture of Bogotá. What was once wasted time, today can be an experience that energizes the economy and strengthens the image of the city,” said the Director of the Bogotá Tourism Office, Andrés Santamaría.

Why Bogotá?

El Dorado International Airport, with more than 355,000 flights operated and 45 million passengers mobilized in 2024, is one of the main air connectivity hubs in Latin America. Flights take off and land from its runways to 57 international destinations and 45 domestic destinations, making it a strategic hub between South America, North America, and Europe. However, according to data from the 2024 Great Traveler Survey 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, encouraging express stays that 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 whom 1,871,956 were international tourists, evidencing a growth 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 reached an average of 61.4% and the daily expenditure of an international tourist was approximately $100 USD.

Stopover Bogotá: a city experience for up to 24 hours

Through packages designed by certified local operators, travelers will be able to enjoy tours such as:

• Bogotá in 24 hours: visit to the historic center, museums, gastronomy, and shopping.
• Flavors of the capital: experience in market squares and local restaurants.
• Bogotá in nature: routes through the hills, gardens, and green spaces within the city.

Each experience seeks to show that Bogotá is not just a point of passage, but a city that you fall in love with from the first moment. Tourists will be able to find the offer of special discounts offered by the city on the official tourism portal Visitbogota.co.
With this strategy, Bogotá’s Tourism Office that at least 472,000 passengers will opt for the Bogotá Stopover between July 2025 and December 2026, generating revenues in the order of $40 million dollars in tourism spending alone. Likewise, airport tax revenues are estimated to exceed $21.2 million dollars.

Avianca, the partner airline of Stopover Bogotá

Avianca, the airline with the most complete route network in Colombia and one of the largest in the region, will be the partner of the Stopover Bogotá program. Today, the company connects the Colombian capital with more than 40 international destinations and more than 20 national destinations. Every day, it operates more than 240 flights to and from El Dorado International Airport, transporting more than 32,000 passengers, of whom approximately 18,000 travels in connection via Bogotá, which reflects a city that has become a hub par excellence.

In its initial phase, and through Avianca’s route network, the strategy will be focused on seven priority markets: Lima, Madrid, Miami, Guayaquil, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. The District Institute of Tourism will carry out an international promotion strategy. With this initiative, the office expects that by the second half of 202,5, the total number of travelers departing from the airport will be close to 72,000, generating an impact on the local economy of more than 6 million dollars.

“At Avianca, we have been connecting Bogotá, which is our home, with Colombia and the world for more than 105 years. For this reason, it is an honor for us to be part of projects such as Stopover Bogotá, which are essential to lay the foundations for the future of the city with tourism as the axis of development, so that those who have a stopover in the city see the immense attraction it has and want to explore it, while waiting for their next flight. For this to become a reality, it will be essential to continue working with all actors so that El Dorado International Airport has efficient processes on the air and ground side, and thus support the economic development of the capital,” said Frederico Pedreira, CEO of Avianca.

Airbus-A320. Photo credit: Avianca.