Bolivar
Colombia's #3 tourist destination (20.1% of foreign visitors 2024), with Cartagena's colonial walls, Reficar refinery, and $1.7B petrochemical expansion.
Cartagena's walled colonial city drew Spanish treasure fleets; today it draws cruise ships and Caribbean tourists. The capital of Bolívar received 20.1% of Colombia's non-resident foreign visitors in 2024, ranking third after Bogotá and Antioquia. Tourism revenues nationwide exceeded $7.44 billion by September 2024—a 14% increase—and Cartagena captured a disproportionate share. The colonial architecture that once stored New World gold now houses boutique hotels.
But Bolívar's economy extends beyond tourism. Cartagena hosts Colombia's largest petrochemical cluster at Mamonal, centered on the Reficar refinery. Companies like Propilco, Mexichem, Dow, Ajover, and Yara have committed $1.7 billion in modernization and expansion. The port sits 2.5 days from Florida by sea, making it the hub where Hamburg Süd, Maersk, and Hapag-Lloyd concentrate their Caribbean operations. The department also extracts gold, coal, and oil from its interior.
As Colombia's oil and gas sectors face long-term decline, the government has designated tourism as a strategic substitute. By 2026, Bolívar will test whether Cartagena can balance heritage preservation with cruise ship volumes—and whether the petrochemical cluster can survive the energy transition that threatens its feedstocks.