Colombia recorded more than 21.7 million migratory movements in 2025, the highest figure Migración Colombia has ever registered, and projections from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) place the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) at US$21.6 billion for the year, with international visitor spending approaching a record US$10.5 billion; yet inside that boom, the country’s licensed hotel industry is losing ground, posting lower occupancy and fewer non-resident guests than the raw arrival numbers suggest.
The gap between rising visitor totals and falling hotel performance captures the central tension in Colombian tourism right now: more visitors arrive each year, but a growing share of them never check in to a registered hotel.
Record arrivals, falling hotel occupancy
Cotelco (Asociación Hotelera y Turística de Colombia), the industry’s main representative body, reported at its 5th National Accommodation Sector Convention in Montenegro, Quindío, in April 2026, that Colombia received 5.9 million non-resident visitors in 2025, down 1.1 million from 7 million in 2024, a drop of 15.4% that contradicts the government’s broader migration figures and points to a measurement gap between who enters the country and who books a formal hotel room.
Bogotá projected 14.8 million total tourists in 2025 and surpassed 2 million international arrivals for the first time, according to the city’s Instituto Distrital de Turismo (IDT), while each international visitor spent an average of US$102.3 per day in Bogotá, US$119.9 per day in Antioquia, and US$211.5 per day in Bolívar, the department anchored by Cartagena; figures that confirm coastal leisure destinations still command significantly higher per-visitor daily revenue than urban business hubs.
Short-term rentals fill the gap hotels leave empty
Short-term rental platforms, led by Airbnb, now absorb a measurable share of the overnight stays that licensed hotels once dominated, with average Airbnb occupancy across Colombia’s major markets running at 51% in the first half of 2026, according to data from The Latin Investor, and top-performing hosts in cities like Medellín and Cartagena reaching 65% to 75% occupancy, comparable to a mid-tier hotel in a normal season.
Colombia’s regulatory framework for these platforms remains inconsistent: a draft decree circulating since January 2026 proposes requiring short-term rental hosts to register formally, collect tourism taxes, and meet minimum safety standards, but the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism had not enacted it as of May 2026, leaving Cotelco to compete against operators who carry none of the licensing, tax, or inspection costs that apply to formal hotels.
José Duarte, president of Cotelco, argued at the Montenegro convention that the playing field is not level and that the government must enforce equivalent regulatory requirements across all accommodation types, or risk accelerating the formal sector’s decline even as visitor numbers climb.
What the imbalance costs Colombia’s tourism economy
In reality, the divergence between record arrivals and hotel distress carries costs beyond the industry itself. Licensed hotels generate formal employment, pay national and municipal tourism taxes, and operate under safety and quality standards that protect visitors; when informal accommodation captures a larger share of nights without equivalent obligations, those public revenues shrink even as tourism infrastructure demands grow.
Colombia collected US$21 billion from tourism in 2024 and sustained over 1.2 million jobs through the sector, according to WTTC; sustaining those numbers through 2026 and beyond depends on whether the country can modernize its accommodation regulations fast enough to capture revenue from new platforms without suppressing the growth that makes Colombian tourism attractive to begin with. The more visitors, fewer guests paradox will not resolve itself through arrival statistics alone.