Orlando, Florida, March 2015—The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) has signed an agreement with the Associacion Hotelera y Turistica de Colombia (COTELCO), which will enable COTELCO to distribute AHLEI courses, training products, and professional certifications to its member properties throughout Colombia.
COTELCO was founded in 1954 by a group of hoteliers in the city of Barranquilla. At its founding, there were only 19 hotels in the country; today, COTELCO has around 800 member companies. The association is led by Gustavo A. Toro Velásquez, president and CEO (pictured). COTELCO’s vision is to be the most representative of the country’s hotel and tourism guilds, known for having developed effective strategies that have strengthened the competitiveness and internationalization of the tourism industry, and for leadership in the analysis sector, influencing public policies that help to position tourism as one of the most important industries of the national economy.
Through the new agreement with AHLEI, COTELCO members will receive special pricing on AHLEI certification and training products, and will be able to purchase these products directly from AHLEI. In addition, they will be able to purchase AHLEI’s hospitality management courses, many of which have been translated into Spanish through an earlier arrangement with COTELCO, which will have the right to print the Spanish-language textbooks for use by members.
“We are convinced that this partnership will bring great benefits to our members and especially for Colombian tourism. Having the backing of an entity such as the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute is so important to the training plan advanced by the association,” said Gustavo Toro.
“The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute is pleased to be working with COTELCO to address the professional development needs of the hospitality and tourism industry in Colombia,” said Brenda L. Vazquez, AHLEI’s senior vice president of marketing. “AHLEI’s prestigious and globally-recognized Spanish courses are a great fit for our Latin American counterpart. We look forward to continued partnership with COTELCO to contribute to their efforts to make tourism an engine of social and economic development in Colombia.”
For information about AHLEI’s international partnerships, visit www.ahlei.org/partners.
