Nearly five million visitors traveled to Colombia in 2025. That's a number that tourism boards celebrate, airline planners note, and hostel developers fund. It is also, according to a growing chorus of experienced travelers, a number that tells you more about effective destination marketing than about the country's actual offering relative to its price point.
A post shared on r/travel this week by a traveler who has visited more than 60 countries ignited one of the most substantive debates about Colombia seen on the platform in recent months — 122 comments, mostly from experienced Latin America travelers, and a thread that resists easy summary because the disagreements are genuine.
The Contrarian Case
The traveler's assessment was blunt: Colombia "does nothing particularly well." Having visited Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Minca, and Barranquilla, the writer concluded that compared to other Latin American destinations, the country falls short on safety, food quality, and cultural richness — while the level of scamming and tourist-targeted dishonesty is higher than regional norms.
"It seems Colombia does nothing particularly well," the traveler wrote. "It's relatively not very safe, the food is mediocre and the level of scamming and dishonesty against tourists is high."
For a country marketing itself on Medellín's transformation narrative and Cartagena's colonial glamour, these are pointed criticisms. And critically, the traveler wasn't cherry-picking: the circuit from Bogotá through the coast and back through Medellín is essentially the greatest-hits itinerary recommended by every major travel publication.
The Counter-Arguments
The 122-comment thread pushed back from multiple angles, and some of the pushback has merit.
First, the itinerary question. Several experienced Colombia travelers argued that the standard gringo circuit — coast, Cartagena, Medellín, Bogotá — represents the most tourist-saturated and therefore most scam-prone version of the country. The Coffee Region (Salento, Filandia), the Tatacoa Desert, and the Amazon basin around Leticia receive consistent praise from travelers who moved beyond the Instagram route.
Second, the food argument. Colombian cuisine — built around bandeja paisa, arepas, sancocho, and fresh tropical fruits — lacks the global ambition of Peruvian or Mexican cooking. But commenters argued this comparison is unfair; those are two of the strongest food cultures in the hemisphere. Compared to most of Central America or a significant portion of Africa and Asia, Colombian food is solid, affordable, and varied.
Third, the safety context. Colombia's government acknowledges ongoing security challenges in specific regions, but urban safety in tourist areas of Medellín and Bogotá has improved dramatically over the past two decades. The scamming problem is real and well-documented, but is not unique to Colombia — it reflects the broader pattern of tourist-targeting in any destination where the wealth gap between visitors and residents is significant.
Why the Hype Exists
The marketing story is easy to trace. Medellín's urban transformation — from the world's most dangerous city in the early 1990s to a Wall Street Journal "City of the Year" winner — generated an extraordinary volume of positive media coverage that seeded the destination in the global travel imagination. Colombia was packaged as the comeback story, and the story was genuinely good.
The problem is that comeback narratives have a shelf life. Colombia's official tourism body, ProColombia, reports that international visitors grew from 2.5 million in 2015 to nearly 5 million in 2025 — a near-doubling in a decade. With that volume came rising prices, a hospitality industry calibrated to foreign incomes, and the erosion of the authentic-local-experience quality that initially made the destination appealing.
The Affordability Question
The original poster's pointed question — whether affordability alone is driving Colombia's tourism boom — deserves a direct answer. Partly yes. Colombia remains significantly cheaper than Brazil and considerably more accessible from North America than Peru or Argentina. Direct flights from Miami, New York, and Los Angeles to both Bogotá and Medellín keep costs manageable in a way that South Cone destinations cannot match.
But affordability relative to origin country is not the same as value. A destination that costs less than home but delivers a mediocre experience at an inflated price relative to regional alternatives is not a good deal — it's a brand premium being paid for a story that has aged.
The Verdict Is Split for a Reason
The 122-comment debate didn't resolve cleanly because the experience of Colombia varies enormously based on itinerary, expectations, travel style, and comparison point. First-time Latin America travelers who haven't visited Peru, Argentina, or Mexico rate it highly. Seasoned regional travelers who have see the ceiling more clearly.
Both are right, and that's the honest state of Colombia tourism in 2026.
