Everybody, at one time or another, dreams of jetting down to some destination down in the Southern Hemisphere, if only for once in their lives. With the drop in worldwide travel lately, the expense of doing so has abated, too. These conditions can make scoring cheap tickets to Colombia or South America more possible than ever.

Why fly down to South America at all? With oil dropping in price all the time, jet fuel isn’t nearly as expensive as it once was, so the price of airline tickets have gone down. Also, airlines are looking to fill seats wherever possible, so you can probably put together a good trip to Brazil or Argentina, for example. And then, while you’re there, stop in and see Peru or Ecuador on top of it.
 
Cheap tickets are all over the place. As travel demand has dropped, the chances of being able to put together a nice travel package to all those countries down in South America are greater than ever. Just take a little care to plan the trip far enough out in advance, and you should be able to wing it pretty cheaply.
 
Planning is the activity to pay the most attention to. Going anywhere down in South America requires a bit of sensible planning. A lot of travel agencies exist to do most of the work for you, though. And if you don’t want to search for tickets yourself, they’ll be happy to do it for you. Of course, you pay them a commission for doing it.
 
Make maximum use of the Internet. Before we had such a thing as the Worldwide Web, it was harder to find out which airlines had cheap tickets to sell, but no longer. Today, you can get an inside view on the price of just about any ticket at any time going any place, including for all those destinations, like Colombia, down in South America.
 
Limber up to be as flexible as you can. Many times, the cheapest fares are gotten by flying very early in the travel day. “Red eye” flights out of a destination can be significantly less than when you travel later in the day. Keep that in mind when you’re booking a flight.
 
Tuesdays through Thursdays are the days to fly. A lot of empty seats are sitting in an airline’s midweek inventory. If you can arrange to travel on those days, you’ll be able to find a cheaper price on a ticket to most any destination. Remember; an empty seat makes an airline no money at all.
 
Plan everything out when it comes to traveling on the cheap. Almost any destination at the moment can be cheaper to get to. Plan wisely, and that South American or Colombian or Brazilian trip won’t end up costing you an arm or a leg. Remember that you’ve got the power to see far in advance what a ticket will cost you, which will then allow you to get the best, and cheapest, price.

By: Juan Carlos Martinez

Colombia became a tourist route of a new millennium. Hundred thousands of tourists from all over the world have chosen the travel to the country of fantastic riches for a long time ago. In 2007 main directions for foreign visitors became Bogotá, Cartagena and Medellin. 40,9 % of the profit is from the general number of tourists from Latin America, but the inflow of visitors from far abroad also increase. So, within the first 9 months of the current year the arrival only by air of foreign tourists in the country increased by 14,2 %. Since January till October 780891 persons visited the country. The same index for the similar period of 2006 was 684089 persons. These figures for the minister of trade, industry and tourism Luis Guillermo Plata grow out the transformations, allowed to change all over the world the point of view about Colombia as about the dangerous country.

Every day more and more people get acquainted with the beauty of Colombia, its cultural variety, advantages and cordiality of Colombians. It is a consequence of persistent work of the government concerning the safety of democracy, employment, the infrastructure, growth and legal stability for investors, the minister considers. The purpose of the ministry – to receive 4 million tourists by 2010 – seems to be not already so fantastic as several years ago. According to the statistics of the Service of economic research of the ministry and department of administrative safety (DAS), during September Colombia was visited by 86877 foreigners, having increased the last year’s index on 8,75 %.

Bogotá is still the main tourist direction of travelers – it was visited by 452546 tourists. Bogotá becomes a religious, gastronomic and business centre of tourism. Besides, the city is the basic changing unit for the travel to other regions of the country. Cartagena became the second one by the attendance since January till October. It was visited by 11,2 % from the general number of tourists, that is 97644 persons and its popularity has increased on 0,3 % in comparison with 2006. Medellin became the third one by the popularity. It received 78478 tourists, that is on

17,8 % more than the last year’s index. Such cities as Cúcuta, Bucarmanga and Pereira also represent the growth by the visiting index . The quantity of tourists from the cruise ships also has increased on 16244 persons or on 48,4 %. From the beginning of the year 43 cruise liners have arrived to the country, 33 of which came into Cartagena, 7 – in Santa Marta and 3 – on the island San Andres.

By: Iuri Tarabanov