By Valentina Castaño
For several decades now, downtown Medellin hotels have seen little more than moments of crisis. The deterioration of this sector of the city brought with it the departure of multiple residents and companies, public space was occupied improperly, insecurity increased, and tourists began to look at other areas of the city when choosing where to stay. spend the night.
The pandemic was also a strong blow, it was not foreseen and it had no precedents, with it came more vacant premises and the closure of places as historic and renowned as the traditional Gran Hotel.
However, and although all seemed lost, a new light seems to have come on. New hotel bets, motels that are transformed into hotels, the return of the Gran Hotel, the night lighting of the Nutibara Hotel, are situations that account for an effort by private individuals to bring this type of business back to life in the center of Medellín. Why do they continue to believe in the territory and what are their bets for it?
Javier Galvis is the manager of the Gran Hotel and the promoter of the union of hotels in the center of Medellín.
An alliance between downtown hotels
Javier Galvis is a businessman in every sense of the word. Although he has only been in his position as manager of the Gran Hotel for just over three months, he speaks freely about the hotel situation in the center and the territory in general.
“I started in March and more or less a month later they invited me to a meeting of the Mayor’s Office, since we are affiliated with Cotelco. During the three or four hours that the meeting lasted, they talked almost exclusively about the town. I raised my voice and spoke of the center, I was the only one, there were no other representatives from the territory. I talked about the problem, but I was very concerned about the situation.
For Javier, the center is always the nerve center of any city, a fundamental space for the hotel business, and he knew well that the territory had much more potential, so he got down to work.
“What I did automatically was call Cotelco, since I don’t know anyone, I’m a newcomer, I told them to give me contacts for hotels in the center, they gave me the one in Mandala and 3H, and that’s where I started. They told me that they had tried to join several times in the past, but mistrust, competition, had not allowed it. I told them to start spreading the word, that was 15 days before Easter, we agreed that I would wait for them after the break at the Gran Hotel and invite them to breakfast. More joined, the Nutibara, the San Ignacio, some nine hotels ended up arriving. We held the first meeting, the agenda, the presentation of the project and we’ve been there for a month now”, says the manager quickly and clearly, always speaking like someone who doesn’t have time to waste.
This ambitious project, which for now is called the Medellín Center Tourism Cluster, or Center W, already has a representation of 21 hotels, 1,117 rooms, and the idea is that many more will join.
Among the ideas and visions that the Cluster has is the sponsorship of spaces such as the green corridor of Oriental Avenue and the training of street vendors in languages and other aspects.
“Our objective is to internationalize the center and that English is spoken. We are working together to carry out this mission and move from complaint to action. We want to transform the center and improve the quality of life of all its inhabitants, including those who are often marginalized such as street dwellers, street vendors, and prostitutes. For us, these people are not a problem, but an opportunity to create a more inclusive and diverse environment”, continues Javier.
Not only he feels motivated by the possibility of returning to the center its vitality through tourism and the private sector. Andrés Angarita, manager of the Hotel Nutibara, is also excited by the idea of transforming the territory from the union to return it to its citizens and visitors.
“This is the most historic hotel in the city, we have to give it that meaning again, that identity, that importance, the idea is that: tell the people, the city, Colombia again, the Hotel Nutibara is still alive” .
Likewise, regarding the Andrés cluster, he opines, “We want to give that identity to an association that wants to work not only for the hotel industry, but also for the center, in the cultural part, in the commercial part, in the historical part, that they give realize that the center of Medellín is worth coming to. Now we are with many investors who, after the work that has been done, are interested in developing projects here”.
And although the project is still a baby and is in its “diapers”, its members are determined to make it grow quickly as they claim to be a group of results and facts, where there is no room for complaints.
“We are already tired of them. If we don’t unite, nothing happens, we have to be together to create synergy”, concludes Galvis.
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