The Colombia Travel Retail Market size was valued at USD 457.8 million in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 799.97 million by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.3 % during the forecasts period. Colombia's travel retail market is poised for growth, reflecting a dynamic tourism sector and increasing consumer spending. Major airports like El Dorado International in Bogotá drive substantial duty-free sales, offering a range of luxury goods and local products. increasing global and domestic mobility has applied additional pressures on Colombian retailers to diversify their product portfolios from luxury makeup to folk art. This market evolution has been spurred by partnership between international players and domestic carriers improving access and diversification. As tourism in Colombia grows, it has become one of the Latin American centers, and the retail industry in the country is still developing, guaranteeing an active shopping experience for tourists.

Latin America Travel Retail Market is Segmented By Product Type (Fashion and Accessories, Jewelry and Watches, Wine & Spirits, Food & Confectionery, Fragrances and Cosmetics, Tobacco, Others (Stationery, Electronics, etc.)), By Distribution Channel (Airports, Airlines, Ferries, Other (Railway Stations, Border, Downtown)) and By Geography (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Rest of Latin America). The market sizes and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD million) for all the above segments.

The Colombian travel set market soared to $465K in 2024, jumping by 27% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers' margins, which will be included in the final consumer price). Over the period under review, consumption recorded a temperate expansion. As a result, consumption attained the peak level of $1.2M. From 2016 to 2024, the growth of the market remained at a somewhat lower figure.

Abstract

Fruit and vegetable vendors in Bogota travel most days to a central market to purchase produce, incurring substantial costs. A social enterprise attempted to shorten the supply chain between farmers and vendors by aggregating orders from many small stores and delivering orders directly. We randomized the introduction of this service at the market-block level. Initial interest was high, and the service reduced travel time and costs, and increased work-life balance. Purchase costs fell 6 to 8 percent, there was incomplete pass-through into lower prices for consumers, and markups rose. However, stores reduced sales of products not offered by this new service, and their total sales and profits appear to have fallen in the short-run, with service usage falling over time. The results offer a window into the nature of competition among small retailers, and point to the challenges in achieving economies of scale when disrupting centralized markets for multi-product firms.

Geographic coverage

Southwest Bogota

Analysis unit

Firm

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

All neighborhoods in Bogota are classified by the government into one of six socio-economic strata, classified from 1 (poorest) to 6 (richest). Our focus is on poor neighborhoods (strata 1 to 3) in the South-West of Bogota, not immediately adjacent to Corabastos. Agruppa went door-to-door along streets in these neighborhoods in January and February 2016 (see Appendix 2 for a study timeline) to identify stores that sell fruit and vegetables, excluding the few large supermarkets and chain stores. Their aim was to map approximately 2,400 stores. Using larger streets as natural boundaries, these neighborhoods were then divided into 69 blocks, with a median block size of 36 retail shops per block. Six of these blocks were then dropped for safety reasons, leaving 63 blocks. Blocks were formed into matched pairs on the basis of geographic location and number of firms in the block, and then ordered according to the sequence in which Agruppa desired to expand operations. One block within each pair was then randomly assigned to treatment, and the other to control, for a total of 32 treatment blocks and 31 control blocks.

This yielded a sample of 1,620 firms, comprising 852 firms in treatment blocks and 768 firms in control blocks. On average, 69 percent of firms in treatment blocks and 70 percent of firms in control blocks expressed interest in Agruppa, giving us samples of 586 interested firms in treatment blocks, 266 uninterested firms in treatment blocks, 536 interested firms in control blocks, and 232 uninterested firms in control blocks.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The Baseline and Follow-Up survey quetionnaires are published in Spanish and English, and provided under the Documentation tab.

Response rate

IPA Colombia conducted five rounds of high-frequency short-term follow-up surveys at 2, 4, 6, 10, and 14 weeks after the launch of Agruppa in a block. We would survey a treatment block and its corresponding control block in the same week, staggering the timing to match the staggered timing of the baseline surveys and introduction of Agruppa. The response rate averaged 79% for firms interested in Agruppa (81% in treatment blocks, 77% in control blocks), and 69% for not-interested firms (70% in treatment blocks, 68% in control blocks).

We then collected two longer surveys at six-months and twelve months after the launch of Agruppa in a block. In addition to the information collected in the high-frequency surveys, these questionnaires also asked about business opening hours, sales of some other products, pricing strategies, crime, record-keeping, and work-life balance. The response rates for interested firms were 78% at six months (80% in treatment blocks, 75% in control blocks), and 76% at twelve months (77% in treatment blocks, and 74% in control blocks), and were again lower for uninterested firms