The UK’s withdrawal from the EU
On 29 March 2017, Theresa May, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom delivered notice to Donald Tusk, then President of the European Council signalling an intention to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union.
This webpage seeks to add clarity in terms of how Brexit, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU might affect your trip to Colombia.
About The Colombian Way
The Colombian Way is registered in Ireland principally as a payment processing company. Being registered in Ireland as opposed to Colombia allows us to take advantage of greater accounting transparency, a simpler tax regime, friendlier banks and full service credit card payment facilities. This makes our corporate overheads lower, allows us to offer better value tours and reduces time spent on administration.
In addition, being an Irish company affords clients additional consumer protection as tours are sold within the jurisdiction of Ireland.
What will change?
The short answer is that still nobody really knows. The UK has still not agreed a deal which has been ratified by both UK and EU parliaments.
United Kingdom Clients
Clients from the UK make up less than 5% of our clients but will be the most adversely affected. Uncertainty surrounding the UK’s withdrawal from the EU has lowered confidence in UK Sterling. It continues to be one of the world’s worst performing currencies.
Aside from our EU-based web developers, our Irish accounts team and some EU-based content writers, almost all of our accounts are reconciled in Colombian pesos. Whilst your Colombia tour arbitrarily costs the same, the value in UK Sterling has increased by approximately 14% since June 2016.
The implications for United Kingdom clients are twofold
- Your Colombia tour is going to be more expensive
- Due to the volatility of British pounds, The Colombian Way has not priced tours in British pounds since 21 February 2016 and will not do so until further notice. Our page about currencies provides more information about our reference currencies and converting to British pounds at the time of invoicing.
Prices for extended tours have always been calculated in Colombian pesos and then converted to the client’s currency. As such the devaluation in British pounds reflects immediately in our proposal costs.
Colombia itself continues to be an excellent value destination and The Colombian Way is a primary tour operator. We do not resell tours of other companies and nobody else sells our tours. Booking one of our tours is your assurance that you are optimising value by contracting directly with a company on the ground in Colombia.
European Union and EEA Clients
The Colombian Way was founded as a proudly European company with honest and fair European values. We founded our company as EU citizens and whilst that is potentially not the case going forward, our company will always be based in the EU
Since our inception our default currency has been the Euro. EU/EEA clients make up just over 65% of all of our clients. Statistically you are from Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Practically very little changes for you. Tours will still be priced in Euros or other European currencies.
If you are transiting from the EU to London Heathrow to connect to the direct Avianca flight, The UK government has already agreed with the European Commission a temporary agreement to ensure there will be no disruption to EU-UK flights. This deal applies through to March 2020 and may well be superseded by a long-term agreement before then.
Clients from the Rest of the World
If you are not from Europe, nothing at all changes for you. We will still offer the chance to pay for tours in your own currency where available.