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The first half of the year saw the entry of 1,285,599 visitors, up 7.3% compared to the same period in 2011.
The airports have the largest number of admissions, 856,672, followed by arrivals by land, 422,316, according to the Directorate General of Immigration.
"While most of the revenue continues to be reported by Juan Santamaria International Airport (655,530 tourists) what stands out is a growth of 26% in the number of tourist arrivals at Daniel Oduber in Liberia, with respect to 2011. 'Nearly 70% of international arrivals were by air. If a comparison is made by months in the years 2011-2102 you can see that there is constant growth ', said a report from the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism", according to Elfinancierocr.com.
During 2010, tourism revenues were $7,341 million, of which $2552 were generated in Panama, $1961in Costa Rica, $1378 in Guatemala, $650 in Honduras , $518 in El Salvador, and $281 in Nicaragua, .
According to a preliminary report by the Central American Tourism Integration Secretariat (SITC in Spanish), tourism revenues in the region grew by 0.9% compared to 2009 and the number of visitors increased by 3.8%.
Despite growth in visitation and spending figures, reported stays in 2010 fell by 14% compared to the figures from the period before the crisis.
The tourism sector also takes into account other variables, such as the absolute number of visitors, to determine the growth of the activities.
From a press release CANATUR:
“August 2011. Given the figures released by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT in Spanish) regarding an increase of 6.5% in non-resident visits to the country for the first half of 2011 versus the same period last year, the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) views these results as encouraging, however, lodging and tourism expenditure variables must also be taken into account in order to determine the real growth of tourism in the country.
Honduras had the highest growth in tourist arrivals of all the countries in the region, with an increase of 80%.
Between 2006 and 2010 Honduras received 80% more visitors, making it the destination with the most growth in the region, followed by Panama and Costa Rica with 43% and 20% respectively.
In terms of the number of visitors, Costa Rica continues to lead the region with 2.4 million tourists in 2010, followed by Honduras with 2 million, Guatemala with 1.8 million, Panama with 1.7 million, and El Salvador with 1.6 million.
In the first three months of the year alone over 49 000 more visited the country than in the same period in 2010.
The rise in international tourist arrivals, most of whom come from the U.S., has exceeded the expectations of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, which had estimated an increase of 4% for the year.
A report in El Financiero notes: "of the international tourists entering the country, 68% did so by air (363 898 via Juan Santamaria Airport and 100,864 by the Daniel Oduber Aipport). "
Visitors to Costa Rica now stay an average of 9.8 nights and spend $954, almost $200 less than in 2009.
Costa Rica's Ministry for Tourism has announced the country's most recent figures on tourism and compares levels before and after the world economic crisis.
Before the crisis, tourists arriving in Costa Rica would stay 11.4 nights, on average, and spend $1,112.
Between January and August, tourism in the region increased 8.1% over the same period of 2009.
Carlos Voleger, regional director of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), stated tourism in the region is growing above the world average.
"In the region, Costa Rica is attracting the most foreigners (over 2 million in 2009) and along with Honduras, is where tourists stay longer with an average of 11 to 12 days," said in an article in Yahoo News.
1,124,000 tourists visited Costa Rica in the first six months of the year, 9.6% more than the same period of 2009.
The Tourism Institute of Costa Rica estimates that around 2 million tourists will visit the nation in 2010.
Newspaper La Prensa Libre published statements by Carlos Ricardo Benavides: “The figures point to an evident recovery after the international economic crisis”.
In the first four months of 2010, the country’s airports received 52.000 more tourists than in the same period of 2009.
Between January and April 2010, a total 546.514 visitors entered the country through its two international airports: Juan Santamaría and Daniel Oduber.
“The figure is still lower to the one registered during the first four months of 2008: 559.030 international tourists”, reported Nacion.com.
The minister of tourism, Carlos Benavides, predicted that they will close the year, 2008, with a 10% increase in tourist visits.
"I believe that this is going to be a good year for Costa Rica regarding tourist arrivals and we hope to end the year with a 10% growth in arrivals in comparison to 2007," Benavides declared to the AFP.
"This growth is five times the global performance, which the ITO (International Tourism Organization) calculated at 2% per country," the minister pointed out.
At the close of 2008, tourism activities will have left the country with more than $2 billion in earnings.
This figure exceeds the amount obtained from foreign visitors to Costa Rica during 2007 by almost 10% (some $171 million more). The projections were made despite negative news from the sector. Up to July of this year the amount of flights to Costa Rica had increased by 37%, but this will change with the announcement of cutbacks from several airlines in response to the economic recession in the United States.
Tourist arrivals in Costa Rica grew by 12.5 percent over last year during the first half of the year.
The Tourism Chamber said in a prepared statement that in the first six months of 2008 just over 1 million tourists arrived by air, an increase of almost 90,000 over the first half of 2007.
"Although the figures aren't official, these estimates are a reliable guideline for Costa Rica's tourism despite the hard economic times both externally and internally," said Chamber President Gonzalo Vargas.
The economic slowdown in the United States and the rise in oil prices has not discouraged American tourists from going to Costa Rica.
From January to May nearly a million foreign tourists visited Costa Rica, and about half as many as visited in all of 2007.
More than half of the visitors were from the United States and 17 percent from Europe.