As a result, the historic center of Armenia was named as part of the "Coffee Cultural Landscape" of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.

[citation needed] In August 1890, six months after its founding, Armenia had reached a population of 100 people, allowing it to gain legal recognition by the government.

The earthquake was also felt in Risaralda, Valle Del Cauca, Tolima, Antioquia, and Cundinamarca, but Armenia was the hardest-hit city.

To the south of the city as it gets closer to sea level, the temperature favors not only Quindío's agricultural economy, but a renewed tourist industry in the shape of villas for rent, theme parks, eco-hotels and family day leisure centers, not excluding all-time favorites like local cuisine restaurants, exhibition centers and country clubs specializing in fishing, tennis, golf, cart racing and other sports.

[citation needed] The region's northern area is the gateway to Los Nevados national park, where the highest peaks in central Colombia rise to perpetual snows at more than 4,500 metres.

At the Quindío side of the foothills of this national park, lies the Cocora Valley, where the National Tree of Colombia, the wax palm grows, and whose municipality of Salento is a tourist destination known for its culinary delicacy (fried river trout), for its guadua crafts and furniture (the strong native bamboo cane), its art galleries and its position as a bohemian centre of regional artists.

The Chapoleras beauty pageant, with costumes depicting the traditional coffee harvesting dress in the fashion of late 19th century, and the various dances, is known in the entire country.

[citation needed] Each fall, La Asociacion Quindiana de Orquideologia hosts an orchid show, open to the public.

This region was widely known in the country in the early 20th century for the production of storage receptacles made of the empty dried shell of the fruit of a local species of inedible bottle gourd, the "Cuyabra" or "totumo", which gives the demonym of "cuyabros" to the people born in this city.

Nowadays, they are no longer mass-produced for practical purposes as cheaper materials such as plastics displaced them from the market, but these traditional receptacles are still produced and hand-painted.

The highly varied geography surrounding Armenia has helped create some of the greatest climbing cyclists in the world, many of whom compete internationally in events such as the Tour de France.

The Quimbaya museum designed by Rogelio Salmona, offers a permanent display of pre-Columbian handcrafts, ceramic, and gold artpieces.