Despite the global financial crisis, more foreign visitors found their way to Colombia in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, the country's Trade Minister announced.
According to Minister Luis Guillermo Plata, 436,833 foreigners entered the country in the first three months of the year, which is a 14.4 percent rise compared to 2008.
Almost a quarter of the tourists entered Colombia on board one of the cruise ships attending the Caribbean coast of the country.
Plata reiterated that the country's growing tourism industry now is the country's third biggest export product after coal and oil.
