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TOURISM TODAY
Academic Trek
The Tourism Fair: A cultural exhibition
Unicolombo is the bilingual platform for the students to start a professional project in Cartagena de Indias. It is reinforced with the activities in each academic program. One of these important activities is the Tourist Products Fair organized by the Bachelor of Business in Tourism and Hospitality Management.
In this fair, the fourth semester students have the opportunity to show their ideas about a tourist products, what is at the same time, their final work for the subject with the same name.
The students of this subjects proposed innovative tourist products related to sustainable tourism, that were exhibited in stands. The topic for this version was Colombia Regions. Some groups organized the stand with local products from a region, other groups prepared a presentation about a specific Colombian region.
Our group made a stand to sell culture. We created a tourist tour in La Boquilla, called: "Eco Tour Raíces de la Boquilla" in which the tourist arrives first to the workshop: Tambores de Cabildo", tourist learns more about African heritage and values; during a short class, they learn how to make drums, during a short class and they can also buy musical instruments.
Our next stop is in the cultural house of La Boquilla, where the tourist is received with typical dances performed by native children. Some musicians teach bagpipe lessons for all tourists and the cultural exchange takes place through the donation of a book by the tourist.
This is our contribution as a tourist route of the region, so the library will be enriched with books of other cultures and the tourist will take a book in Spanish.
Leaving the cultural house we go towards the archaeological park or pre-Columbian museum the tourist can appreciate all the archaeological richness that the region has. The tourist at midday can go to a restaurant nearby the sea to eat a typical dish of the region as they are sea food like: sanchocho, bandeja, sierra, mojarra, robalo, pargo, sabalo, cazuela de marisco, langosta, langostino al ajillo, jaiba, coctel de camaron y la bandeja mixta que es un plato moderno.
The tourist after lunch has an hour to bathe in the sea and then our eco tour ends with a canoe ride through the mangroves here the tourist has the opportunity to appreciate the ecosystem of mangroves, sighting of birds, fish and crabs and we also offer the tourist the possibility of fishing.
By Diana Cogollo Berrocal IV semester.