Entry 3 - Tuesday, October 1

How Columbia Went From Violent Narco State to Peaceful Tourist Hot Spot

1 October, 2013 The Toronto Star

When most people hear the name Colombia, they may think of the former drug lord, Pablo Escobar. Colombia used to be a completely war-stricken, pariah state filled with narcotics gangs, Marxist rebels and right-wing paramilitary death squads and it is now a peaceful land that attracts growing numbers of foreign investors and many tourists each year. One of the first reasons for this change is that Plata was named to head the Colombian government agency, Proexport. This group was responsible for promoting tourism, foreign investments and exports. This caused a big change in Colombia, but it still wasn't enough to make the country a tourist hot spot. The biggest change was when a hard-line politician named Alvaro Uribe took over the Colombian presidency. Alvaro scored many major victories against violent groups. At this point, the streets of Colombia were much more peaceful and that's when American marketing consultant, David Lightle, decided to get involved and invited foreigners to visit the country. Lightle invited foreigners like Harvard University and economist Michael Porter who went home impressed by what they had seen and eager to spread the word about the "new" Colombia. Now, Colombia has many tourists visiting on holidays and has a worldwide poll which concluded that Colombian citizens are the most contented people on the planet with a happiness score of 75 which is much higher than Canadians' 48.

In my opinion, Colombia would be a great place to visit after hearing so many reviews about how safe the country has become. Before reading this article, I thought that Colombia was a very dangerous and poor country but now I fully believe that Colombia would be an amazing place to visit and live.