Coffee farming entices more and more domestic and foreign tourists

With increased previous learning, visitors seek to get familiar with origin and all that is behind the bean, from seed to cup. (Photo taken from fincadelcafe.com: Visitors on a coffee tour.)

Coffee entices more and more tourists from Colombia and abroad.

Luz Nelly Díaz, manager of the Finca del Café, attests to it fully aware. “European and North American tourists, and those from other regions and from the very country are increasingly interested in the coffee culture,” she says.

Located in Santa Rosa de Cabal, Risaralda, the Finca del Café receives increasingly more visitors, even from countries as distant as China, South Korea, Japan (three markets of growing coffee consumption and sophistication), Israel, India, and Iceland.

In addition to providing accommodation, the place offers the so-called Coffee Tour, allowing visitors to get familiar with the entire production process, from seed to cup.

Visitors, Díaz says, arrive increasingly informed from their places of origin, in line with the global trend whereby coffee consumers, either amateur or expert, are increasingly interested in origin and all that is behind the bean.

“Before coming they learn about, study and read to know all about coffee, and during the tour they clarify their doubts. They are very eager for knowledge,” she notes.

“They love knowing that behind the coffee they drink there is an entire culture, families making a living from it; they value coffee much more,” she adds.

The team of Díaz, who acknowledges that the peace process has helped bring more tourists because they feel safer, has received cupping training from the Risaralda Coffee Growers Committee to enhance their work.

In that sense, with barista and cupping courses, the Committee works with all the Horeca (hotels, restaurants and coffee shops) channel to promote brewing and appreciation of the drink in the department.

Marcia Inés Puerta, manager of VíaEje, a tour operator in the Coffee Triangle and Coffee Cultural Landscape, agrees that tourism directly related to coffee is on the rise. “We specialize in showing tourists what lies behind a rich cup of coffee. Coffee has been a big door to tourism,” she acknowledges.

“On business matchmaking forums, there are people from China or Japan, and they have coffee, the Coffee Triangle, in their minds. Coffee tourism has diversified a lot. Many foreigners are interested in what’s original, authentic,” she notes.

An eloquent figure for this coffee-tourism symbiosis is the nearly one million visitors (of which between 7% and 10% are foreigners) received every year by the emblematic Coffee Park, in Montenegro, Quindío, specialized in the coffee culture, and which includes the modernized and interactive Coffee Museum among its attractions.

“The Coffee Triangle is one of the country’s strongest destinations. There are many parks in the world, but there is only one Coffee Park, in Quindío, in the coffee land, and tourists seek that, funny experiences,” says Jhon Faber Giraldo, head of communications of the Coffee Park.

For that reason, the construction of a first-class hotel in front of the Park has been already planned to boost tourism in the region.

Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism has promoted coffee tourism and the creation of tourist routes and corridors around coffee, encouraging producers to take advantage of tourism as a complementary source of income.