Bogota through the 5 senses: building a creative tourism start-up.

Abstract

Abstract 5Bogota: Travel with Locals was established in 2013 with the goal of promoting creative tourism in Colombia. This start-up was conceived as a marketplace connecting local hosts with foreigners wishing to explore the city through different eyes, while fostering local sustainable development in the places they visit. Our experience with Colombian start-up 5Bogota (Bogota through the 5 Senses) underlines the importance of a methodical process integrating the creation of unique tourism experiences with the marketing strategies necessary for the development of a profitable business model, thus ensuring the social impact sought by the concept of creative tourism. This brief text outlines the methodology used to create and consolidate the experiences offered by 5Bogota. The methodology comprises eight stages, including context analysis, the study of the destination's characteristics, the establishment of the typology for the traveller and for the local host, the design of the tourism product, and the marketing strategy. In closing, a series of conclusions are presented to share the lessons learned through the application of this methodology at 5Bogota, and to identify the main key success factors for entrepreneurship in creative tourism.