How do you assess Colombia's current development in the tourist sector? What major hurdles is the country facing in its effort to capture new markets? First of all, I'd like to thank you and Caribbean Excellencies for counting us in. Colombia has been conducting a silent and very measured work as far as tourism promotion is concerned. In the meantime, we've carried out a campaign under a slogan reading Colombia: A Continent Country, because that's how we see ourselves. Then, we embarked on a deeper assessment of our situation in the world and then we understood we're indeed a Caribbean country. Colombia possesses hundreds of kilometers along the Caribbean shore. Its premiere destinations are all sun-and-beach choices scattered along the Caribbean coastline, with due mention, of course, to the Colombian Pacific coast. But make no mistakes about it; the Caribbean is our neck of the woods.

Since last year, we've been using a very interesting motto at both the Ministry of Economic Development and the Colombian Fund for Tourist Promotion, the one entity I myself work in. The slogan reads Live Colombia, Travel Around It. The idea behind this endeavor is to make people feel Colombia as a part of themselves. It's no doubt an emotional campaign, one of those blitzes expert call “umbrellas,” because we're going to work on seven different Colombian tourist products embracing all the destinations the country has to offer. We're talking about sun-and-beach options, history and culture, ecological tourism, agro-tourism, incentives, parties and celebrations, a combination that truly comprises everything. We're working on that particular basis for tourists to feel themselves like a part of Colombia.

What markets are you mostly interested in?

According to official figures we keep tabs of at the WTO, the most important markets for us are Spain on the top of the list, followed by Germany, Italy in third place, France and last but not least, the Netherlands. Europe continues to be a major market for us.

Do you have an earmarked budget this year for the promotion of Colombia in those markets?

Yes, absolutely. But as I was telling you, the decision made by the Colombian government and by ourselves as the people in charge of the country's promotion, is to campaign in a very prudent way, biding our time and waiting for those conflicts that are unfortunately sweeping our nation to come to a satisfactory close for all of us. We've been working to launch out a public image abroad, but that effort could backfire if we happen to paint a blurred picture of the nation. People could wonder what's wrong with that country that on the one hand is hurt by press reports that talk about huge conflicts, and on the other hand, its authorities try to portray it merely as a tourist destination. There'll be a controversy. We've preferred to take things in stride and start, as any good housewife would say, by putting our ducks in a row first, so everything will be tidy and neat when our guests come.

What Colombian destination would you recommend best at this moment? An island or the mainland?

I dare say both of them. You've got to cross the continent to get to the islands. Colombia is not really a country swept by conflicts. We do have a domestic, well-focused melee, which is not spilling over to the urban areas. People may come to Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Cartagena, Santa Maria, Barranquilla, San Andres with total peace of mind. Colombia is a visited, loved and known country. Like in any other part of the world –just go to Madrid, Rome or Singapore- you need to have a minimum of safety and security. That's all. But as I was telling you, San Andres or Providencia could perfectly be a couple of tourist destinations. We're ready and waiting for the right moment to welcome visitors.

What about the airlines?

Of course, we have our standard-bearer air carrier –Avianca- now sending European passengers from Madrid on a daily flight leaving at 2:00pm, and that's, by the way, a perfect time. Anybody can arrange connections and take that flight. The best thing about it, though, is that regardless of being a long 10-hour flight, you only lose four hours. On that same day you leave Europe and land in Colombia, and a couple of hours later, through a connection as easy as pie, you touch down in the Colombian Caribbean, in a Cartagena beach to take a swim and bask in the sun. The whole trip could only take six hours.

Graciela, I'd like to know how you wound up in the world of tourism, if you always wanted to be inside this complicated domain, or maybe it was just life itself what dragged you all the way to where you're standing right now.

Since I was a student at the Andean College of Bogota –a German school- everything about tourism was always striking my attention. However, life pushed me to a more down-to-earth kind of attitude, and I had to go for a course that at the time could let me make ends meet and join the working rank and file as soon as possible. You know, at the end of the day everybody has responsibilities about life and I've got mine, too. So, that's how I started my career as a translator and interpreter in German, English, French and Spanish languages. The funny thing is that I started working professionally in my career. I've got this friend of mine that called me up one day and told me, “Hey, I must retire from the mayor's office (the prefecture of Bogota) where I'm working right now in the tourism field, and I was told to recommend someone who speaks German.” I told her it was okay, that I was interested in it. That was back in 1978, so go figure!

That's how I started working at the mayor's office in Bogota in the field of tourism. I've got peace of mind to say that I've gone all out, that I've gotten training and I've gotten the most of my bosses, from the Mayor of Bogota at the time to one of the best chiefs I ever had –Maria Paulina Espinoza de Lopez, known worldwide as the Pum-Pum, who also served a stint as Vice Minister of Tourism. I learned a lot from them, I sought to grasp the best and the most positive elements. Life's been very kind on me for it has allowed me to meet extraordinary people, people who can show you life is not what you see but rather what you have in mind, what you have way deep inside your heart.

Thus, I started moving up the ladder through a lot of hardworking, and here I am now, proudly representing my country in these international fairs and tradeshows as head of the delegation. Colombia's Fund for Tourist Promotion is in charge of helping Colombian entrepreneurs attend these international events to make contacts and conduct businesses. Then, as I say every now and then, I don't sell a chair or a bed. I sell my country. I sell Colombia's image, and that's a positive and nice image. And something else we'd put on a back burner for quite some time when referring to Colombia's technical aspects: my homeland has something not every country aboveground does. We all have natural beauties, but our human resources in Colombia –and pardon me for not eating humble pie here- is way too superior. We're warm, kind, generous people, and that's our major resource and wealth, because the power of a smile can heel all wounds. You could have the Taj Majal, but if the doorman treats you unkindly, then the Taj Majal loses its enchantment. Those are the things that put us on the map when we go around the world as kind, nice and happy people.

How do you juggle all of your hats as a woman of the 21st century? Because, apart from being a professional, you're also a mother and a wife, too.

Thanks to my husband's stamina and my children's patience, plus the fact that I've got a sensational mom who's been more of a mother to my kids than myself, I've been able to pull things off. They are the ones who have permitted me to go around the world to do my job the best way I know how. Of course, I always have them in the bottom of my heart, a couple of tears roll down my face every time I think of my kids and I'd like to have them with me here. There are things you see and you say to yourself, “It's a pity I can't share these moments with them. (Tears well up in Graciela's eyes as she remembers today is her daughter's birthday). But I also have to thank those exceptional people you go meeting around the world and who become your guardian angels. I've found plenty of guardian angels in every country I've been to –in Spain, Italy, Germany. There's always been someone special in every country who's supported me and offered me his or her company. Those same people have given me their moral support when the going gets so tough that you get scared when you're away from home and you feel lonely. That's a little bit of what giving birth is all about as you beget them with love, charming, expectations and as something very, very special.

Then, when you have to stay in the fairground at the end of the tradeshow, when the lights are out and the “curtain is rolled down,” that's what really breaks your heart to pieces, when you stop and ask yourself, “What happened?” But that's the human side of the tour. Business is one thing, the professionalism to handle things. Yet, your heart is always involved in all this. I don't think anybody in this walk of life can say this is just another business. You put your heart into it, your life, your hardest efforts and all the stamina in the world. You get keyed up because the plant to spruce up the stand is not there yet, because a light bulb is missing or just because somebody you expected never made it. I would say those of us in charge of tradeshow stands overseas, act as if we were “hens,” taking our entrepreneurs to their appointments to make them feel comfortable, to make them feel like they've got what it takes to do their job.

In short, it's hard to be a mother, a woman, a wife and a professional in the same breath. It's hard, but I also ought to thank all those who someday will read out all this we're talking about. I can tell you I'm what I am thanks to them, not to me.