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From Cartagena, the first president seeks to promote the economic reactivation of the sector, strongly affected by the new coronavirus pandemic.
President Iván Duque Márquez sanctioned the recently approved Tourism Law on December 31, which is considered a tool for the economic reactivation of a sector that was strongly affected by the restrictions imposed by the new coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
“This new Law, an initiative of Mincomercio, will allow us to put tourism on the new path of economic reactivation after a supremely difficult year and the most interesting thing about this new Tourism Law, Law 2068 of 2020, is that it is a combination of short, medium and long term measures ”, said the president.
Among the points that the new legislation brings is support to San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, recently affected by the passage of Hurricane Iota, with the allocation of 15 million dollars financed from the national tourism tax that, among other things, they will be invested in competitiveness, promotion and infrastructure, as well as for reconstruction.
It may interest you: “The reactivation of the sector will be with local tourism”: Mincomercio
The new law also contemplates the reduction of VAT on air tickets from 19% to 5%, temporarily, until December 31, 2022, the temporary suspension of the payment of the energy surcharge for tourism service providers in the subsectors of hotels, accommodation, events and parks, the temporary elimination of the consumption tax and VAT exemption for hotel and tourism services until December 31, 2021.
“This new Law brings fundamental reactivation measures to strengthen the development of tourism, but also includes other measures associated with tourism sustainability and quality that will allow Colombia to position itself in the long term as a destination of very high quality and oriented to the preservation of heritage, ”commented, for his part, the Vice Minister of Tourism, Julián Guerrero Orozco.
The Government highlighted other benefits of the law, such as the elimination of the payment of the penalty for the reactivation of the National Tourism Registry (RNT) until March 2021 and the extension of the special rate of 9% of the income tax for construction of new hotels, new theme parks and remodeling of these, in the same way the construction time was extended from 4 to 6 years. That last point is focused on attracting investment.
On the other hand, it balances the field a bit between digital platforms that provide services related to tourism and traditional providers by requiring that they have the National Tourism Registry (RNT) as well as those who advertise their services through these media.
