Villavicencio, Meta Department, Orinoquía Region, Colombia

🇨🇴 Villavicencio is a city and municipality in Colombia. Capital of Meta Department, it was founded in 1840. The city is located 75 km south-east of the Colombian capital city of Bogotá by the Guatiquía River. It is the most important commercial centre in the Llanos Orientales. It has a warm and humid climate, with average daily temperatures ranging from 21 °C to 30 °C. It is affectionately called "Villavo" la bella.

Lying in a rural zone of tropical climate, Villavicencio is on the great Colombian-Venezuelan plain called the Llanos, which is situated to the east of the Andes mountains. Villavicencio is also called "La Puerta al Llano", or "The Gateway to the Plains", due to its location on the historical path from the Colombian interior to the vast savannas that lie between the Andes range and the Amazon rainforest.

Villavicencio's proximity to huge mountains and great plains make the city an example of Colombia's geodiversity. Because it is located in the foothills of the Andes, the morning and evening breezes cool the city, which is very hot for most of the day.

Economy In recent years the city has achieved an economic development strengthened by the trade sector, thanks to the dynamics generated by the roads that channel to the interior and the centre of the country the agricultural and agro-industrial industry of the Llano, as well as the products entering the region from different parts of Colombia. Construction activity is very important. Gas and oil exploitation in the Apiay field are part of the region's mining activity. Cattle, agriculture, and the exportation of crude oil fuel the Villavicencio economy. Imports from the surrounding area include coffee, bananas, and rice.

La Vanguardia Airport serves Villavicencio with flights to the rest of Colombia on four airlines, including Colombian major airlines Avianca and Latam Colombia.

Villavicencio continues to be the main collection and supply centre for the municipalities of Villavicencio and the municipalities of the Colombian Orinoco region, as well as the main oil and gasproducing municipality; however, most of the jobs are being generated in commercial and service activities, that is, in non-productive and non-tradable sectors. Large constructions, roads, financial resources, and tourism revolve around these commercial dynamics and services. This means that the department's contribution to the National GDP is less than 2%, a figure that has been maintained over the last 49 years, that is, from 1960 to 2009.

Education As the hub city of the Eastern Plains, Villavicencio is the main urban university centre of the region to which young people from neighboring departments come. • University of the Llanos is a public university located within Villavicencio. Other higher education institutions include Cooperative University of Colombia, Saint Thomas Aquinas University, Saint Martin University, Uniminuto, UAN. • Universidad Santo Tomás Offers presential programs, and more than 22 programs in open and distance mode (VUAD), among which are: International Business, Agricultural Business Administration, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Psychology, Law and Public Accounting. It has High-Quality Institutional Accreditation Res. 01456/29/01/2016. • Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia: The Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia is an institution of Higher Education founded in 1958, socially owned, which by its origin and organization belongs to the Solidarity Economy sector. It has branches in other cities of the country. • Unimeta: It has 14 undergraduate programs, 25 specializations, 23 diploma courses, and several extension courses. • Minuto de Dios University offers the following degree programs and free courses: Social Communication-Journalism, Business Administration, Computer Technology, Graphic Communication Technology, among free courses in Basic Computer Science and Basic Programming.

Tourist Industry Villavicencio's tourism activity has been the result of progress in commercial activity and services; in other words, its growth depends on commercial dynamics, the services provided, and the efforts of municipal and departmental administrations. Tourism is carried out in both urban and rural areas (corregimientos) and has grown in both sectors. To the natural possibilities that its territory offers for the rest, the works of modernization of the highway are added that shortened in distance and time the passage with the capital of the Republic. In this way Villavicencio and other adjacent municipalities (Acacías, Cubarral, Cumaral, Restrepo, Puerto Lopéz, Puerto Gaitán, Cáqueza) are offered as new tourist destinations. In preparation to meet this demand, tourism development plans and strategies are implemented by the departmental and municipal governments, as well as the Cotelco branch. In relation to physical infrastructure, the city has an acceptable hotel inventory, as well as agro-tourism properties.