Vichada Network: Colombia's Last Frontier

Vichada Network

Welcome to the Tourism Council of Puerto Carreño and Vichada (public/private/ngo/gov consortium) located on the western bank of the Orinoco River in Puerto Carreño. We are the most remote (easternmost) municipality of a department in Colombia at the end of Route 40), the municipality is named after the capital city (seat) Puerto Carreño in the Colombian Department of Vichada:

"The Land of People for People without Land."

2023 Vichada became a Tax-Exempt Tourism Investment Haven inviting Non Taxable Investments that offset climate change that are both ecological and sustainable. (Lots of projects have emerged.)

We encourage and recommend that all seasoned backpackers, explorers, fisherman, travellers, tourists and visitors to join our global/local association prior to arrival in order to gain access to a wide-range of special benefits, discounts, products, services and travel options during your stay. The Tourism Council is being developed to better serve the needs of visitors as well as represent the people that accommodate and serve visitors once they arrive. Our everchanging and ever-growing website(s) connect(s) visitors with over 3,000 tourist activities that are available locally. We connect our tourists with the industry!

The Vichada Tourism Council is part of the Puerto Carreño Tourism Authority, which is owned and operated by the cooperative stakeholders, local business members, honorary members of the consortium and registered visitors within the context of our objectives and purposes. Everyone benefits in our tourism destination as we grow.

Between 2023-2025, eco-tourism will take over all other economic activities in the Vichada Department and the Orinoco Watershed (Orinoco Valley); there is a great focus on Puerto Carreño serving appropriate hospitality and tourism services hub for tourists to choose from 100's of options throughout Vichada, and of course we encourage tourists to stay at least a night or two on arrival and before departure; we will have a taxi there for you, we do not want our visitors to go home empty handed or forget about the good time they had visiting.

Colombia National Branding Campaign, the national branding program incorporates over 100 symbolic graphics.

About the Vichada Tourism and Travel Network

The Vichada Network is a Cloud Based Network (Provided by Google Workspace) dedicated to serving the needs of its member users to build and meet the ever changing civil demands in the Department of Vichada; all four (soon to be five or six) municipal and rural subdivisions can make good use of our network thanks to a geocentric presence created professionally for Digital Nomads and American Expats. Our network is the best way to geolocate your business and connect to the cloud to engage faster and more securely using the social media platforms, users are assigned Cloud Identity (IDaaS).

In 2023 local residents should watch for the introduction of the following domains and many other subdomains of individual businesses online with listings and new developments in the social media sector.

puerto-carreño.vichada.net (Puerto Carreño)
primavera.vichada.net (La Primavera)
cumaribo.vichada.net (Cumaribo)
santa-rosalía.vichada.net (Santa Rosalia)
san-jose.vichada.net (San José de Ocuné)

Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Dot Net - Hosting on Google Cloud with Mobile Deployment.

Vichada Network (Adventure All-Around)

The Colombian State (Department) of Vichada is the second-largest department and the most remote eastern outpost in Colombia; the large area and low population also means it is the last place on the priority list of the government's funding ladder; therefore locally we need to depend on ourselves and the interests of visitors that make their way here. Our focus is on general ecological tourism and international adventure tourism combined with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and the World Tourism Organization gives us a functional working agenda with clearly defined goals to meet as an organization of members.

The Vichada Network aims to connect the resources from 41 national parks, approximately 100 hotel and resort properties, 300 providers of services and ecological reserves from 4 municipalities: Puerto Carreño (capital), Santa Rosalia, La Primavera, and Cumaribo (Indigenous territories and Biosphere). In 2023 our website becomes diversified with increased security to meet the demands of tourists and our members as investors. The Vichada Network is the only regional .net website (network) that is 100% secure using Google Workspace, Cloud Identity, WhatsApp for Business and Workplace by Meta.

Sign says:"Puerto Carreño, National Capital of Peace, Live! You are in Vichada, the Best Land in the World!

The sign says:"Puerto Carreño, National Capital of Peace, Feel Alive! You are in Vichada, the Best Land in the World!

Ecological, Ethical and Sustainable Tourism

The new council subscribes to ideas of the Tourism Bill of Rights and the Tourist Code which was adopted by the World Tourism Organization in 1985. Our organization also capacitates and qualifies all of its participants with Implementation Guideline for Tour Operators and International Law of Tourism which provides for tourism resources and activities; rights and obligations of tourists, organizations and individuals doing tourism business and other supportive businesses that work integrally within the tourism industry. Since 2020 the world was made to subscribe and voluntarily adhere to International Code for the Protection of Tourists (ICPT) due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Our First Year 2023

Our council is being developed as an autonomous international civil society and authoritative compliance body that implements best practices in tourism among those we represent to help to ensure tourists have access to their rights and a grievance system to promote better tourism experiences and improve local tourism policies and standards. Our chamber is bicameral inasmuch as it is developed to serve the needs of both tourists and tourism industry protagonists with an unremunerated board of directors. In the months of March and April of 2023 our field assessment survey interviewed over 100 businesses that depend on 20% or more of their economic revenue from tourism, all were consensual with the idea of establishing a tourism council for the region, (30% of the participants interviewed were from other parts of Vichada) justifying extending the scope to a regional tourism council. The new ideas being discussed by members of the community here are all feasible and practical, the only thing missing are the resources and the volume of tourism the area needs to become sustainable.

Plaza Bolivar in Puerto Carreño, Colombia

This plaza project is being used to demonstrate the goodwill of the people living in the city, so every business will be approached for a discretionary contribution while we run a crowdfunding program on GoFundMe and set-up our Puerto Carreño SDGs Investment Fund in Washington, DC.

Notice of Developments, Projects, Plans and Venues

The Vichada Network starting in 2023 begins with the objective of putting into operation a comprehensive tourist information, logistics and planning system connected at the international and national level, with the support of public and private, nongovernmental, national and regional entities. International participation is under the administration of Globcal International in Washington, DC (Certification and Registry Service Provider) and nationally under the Colombia Tourism Fund (FONTUR)

The Colombian Tourism Network began to be administered by what is now the National Tourism Fund in 2010; Fontur, which is dedicated to following the guidelines established by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism in accordance with the World Tourism Organization and other UN treaties. Fontur currently operates one Information Center at the Germán Olano Airport in Puerto Carreño.

Finally in 2023 based on the needs of the tourism business sector (community) the town of Puerto Carreño will seek to establish tourist information kiosks and a tourist service center in Puerto Carreño for visitors so they have a contact point, ombudsman, and so they can consult with attendants to improve their tourism experience or arrange their next stop in Colombia.

Attendant showing a map to a visiting guest arriving at the airport.

State tourism information employee showing a map to a visiting guest arriving at the airport.

Tourism is seen as an axis of local, regional and national economic, social and cultural development, that requires, among other instruments, a reliable information system that contributes to the orientation and satisfaction of the visitor and serves as a tool to determine the indicators of tourism. this activity, is making each region a more competitive destination.

Tourism creates an economic base for the community that can be counted on growing by providing a rich and robust economic experience for tourists.

Vichada_Tourism-Orinoco_Colombia

The purpose of the "Cooperativa Mixta de Puerto Carreño" (also known as Puerto Carreño Tourism Council) is to implement inter-institutional, public and private actions, aimed at transforming the wide tourist potential that Vichada's Capital City has into tourist products and services that are solidly promoted and effectively positioned nationally and internationally, making tourism a true engine of sustainable regional development, employment generation and generation of business, institutional and social added values.

We arrived in Puerto Carreño in April to work with 13 tribal groups of Indigenous Peoples and we ended up with the responsibility of fixing up a local landmarks, what are we waiting for?