Using big data management techniques, it is possible to know, with greater precision than with traditional methods, the socio-demographic characteristics, tastes, preferences and interests of consumers living in a specific area of a city or of groups of people who visit particular stores.
Nowadays, with the large volumes of data that exist, it is possible to examine absolute and relative numbers of potential customers of a shopping center or business that are in any other location.
After foreign exchange revenues from tourism in Costa Rica fell from $4 billion to $1.343 billion between 2019 and 2020 due to the closure of borders and airports, it is projected that the sector will remain in the red during 2021.
March 2020, when most countries began to register Covid-19 cases, was the month in which revenues began to fall. Statistics from the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) show that in this context of pandemic, between April and October of last year, the Costa Rican tourism industry practically did not earn any foreign currency.
President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Tourism Gustavo Segura, signed the Law for the Promotion of Tourist Marinas and Coastal Development, a regulation that modernizes the conditions in which the country's marinas operate.
The law, signed on April 5, authorizes foreign-flagged vessels and their crews to carry out lucrative activities related to aquatic transportation, recreation and tourism within the waters of the national territory, allowing the hiring of national captains and sailors to carry out these practices, informed the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
In the last months of 2020 and in January 2021, interest in travel agency services and other tourism-related services began to increase, a rise that was most evident in Costa Rica and Guatemala.
Through a system that monitors in real time changes in the interests and preferences of consumers in Central American countries, developed by CentralAmericaData, it is possible to project demand trends in the short and long term, for the different products, sectors and markets operating in the region.
The amount of visitors arrivals to Central America and the Dominican Republic shows a downward trend since 2016, which was consolidated in 2019 and worsened in 2020, a phenomenon that is explained by the events recorded in the extra-regional market.
Between 2015 and 2019, the countries of the SICA region, the average growth rate of visitor arrivals was 4.9%, where only in 2019 there was a negative rate of -0.2%, highlights a document of the Secretariat for Central American Tourism Integration (SITCA) published in January 2021.
Due to the outbreak of covid-19 worldwide and restrictions on passenger transportation, only 1.01 million visitors arrived in the country during 2020, 68% less than what was reported in 2019, when 3.14 million tourists arrived.
Although the fall in tourist arrivals was generally resounding, during the last months of 2020 a more favorable behavior was reported.
Due to Costa Rica's estimated average hotel occupancy rate of 52% by 2020, well below the 95% recorded at the end of 2019, businessmen in the sector expect that in this context of crisis there will be no peak seasons next year.
The tourism sector is one of the hardest hit by the economic crisis generated by the outbreak of covid-19, because mobility restrictions, the closure of air terminals and the fear of tourists to be infected, have influenced the drastic fall in tourism activity.
Between October and November, the number of visitors from the US quadrupled, from 6,000 to 24,000, a rise reported in the context of the economic reopening and the reactivation of commercial flights.
The 24,606 Americans who arrived in the country during November, represent a little more than a quarter of the visits from the US registered in the same month of 2019, informed the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
The risks involved when visiting a destination and the possibility of making reservations with less notice are fundamental factors that consumers will consider when deciding whether or not to take a trip in the coming months.
The outbreak of covid-19 in several countries around the world almost caused air, sea and land transport to disappear, as several governments decided to ban leisure and business travel.
As of October 1st, citizens and residents of Mexico may enter Costa Rican territory by air, under the condition that they comply with the sanitary requirements imposed by the authorities to contain the outbreak of covid-19.
As part of the process of reactivating air connectivity, Jamaican tourists will also be able to enter and the authorization for California residents will be reconfirmed.
As of September 1, the authorities will allow the entry of U.S. residents from the states of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and as of September 15, tourists from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Colorado will also be able to arrive.
The current scenario of reactivation of commercial flights and tourist activities, are an opportunity for insurers to increase their sales, since the hiring of a policy is a mandatory requirement for tourists to be allowed to travel.
Products that offer a refund in the event of having to cancel the trip due to illness, as well as coverage at the destination if the person becomes ill, both for medical expenses and for lodging in case a quarantine is needed, constitute a great opportunity in this context of the spread of covid-19.
As of September 1st, Costa Rica's tourist marinas will be authorized to receive foreign visitors, who must comply with all the requirements established by local authorities.
As a result of the covid-19 outbreak and the closing of the borders decreed by the government, the arrival of foreign tourists to Costa Rican marinas was restricted for more than five months.
Because Costa Rica requires foreign visitors to take out a local policy, which costs more than $275 for a two-week stay, tour operators are asking that insurance taken out abroad be accepted as an incentive for tourist arrivals.
After more than four months of the country's borders being closed to tourists, commercial flights resumed on Aug. 3 with the arrival of an Iberia plane carrying more than 200 passengers from Spain.
Local authorities confirm that sanitary measures for the entry and exit of passengers have already been approved, and so far the plan is to reopen the Juan Santamaría and Daniel Oduber international airports as of August 1.
Civil aviation officials confirm that the first flights that would be authorized to arrive at the air terminal in the Costa Rican capital would come from the U.S., Canada and Europe.