Following the example of Panama, attracting new airlines in Costa Rica has had a positive impact on the number of tourists coming into the country.
Improving a country's air connectivity is the main recipe for increasing the influx of visitors and improving the country's ranking as a destination for tourism. These elements, along with others, explain the 7% increase in the number of tourists who came to Costa Rica in January and February 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.
In the Pacific port of Costa Rica a cruise ship route has been inaugurated which will cover the Mesoamerican coast and end in Los Angeles, California.
The "Mesoamerican Route" operated by Azamara Club Cruises, a cruise line attached to Royal Caribbean International, starts in Puerto Caldera, ending 14 days later in the U.S.
From a press release from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute:
The 1,875 passengers on the Island Princess had to dodge trucks entering and leaving the docks in Costa Rica.
"It's terrible that we have to walk in between trucks and cargo transportation services," said the Canadian Brenda Seguin to La Nacion. "I have not seen this anywhere else, at least not like this," she reiterated.
In addition to this problem, the pavement which tourists have to walk on is very run down and the place where artisan crafts are sold is made up of makeshift tents under which it is extremely hot.
The Costa Rican Institute of Tourism and the private sector are planning for the country's participation in 26 international fairs to be held over the next seven months.
The fairs in which Costa Rica will be able to participate will take place during the season starting in September 2013 and ending in April 2014. According to the chief of Tourism, Allan Flores, "the platform of international trade is an important opportunity to raise awareness, market and present the strengths and tourism capabilities that our destination has."
The new brand image for the country will promote tourism, boost exports and attract investment.
From a press release by the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex):
esencial COSTA RICA henceforth will be a national brand that Costa Rica will use officially to present its international image to the world.
The Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex), the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER) and the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE) revealed the new country brand to be used as a tool for positioning, differentiation and competitiveness of Costa Rica to potential investors, tourists and international buyers of Costa Rican products.
Properties belonging to 130 tourism businesses are at risk of foreclosure because they have not been able to make loan repayments.
On 16 August many small businesses could lose their properties due to non-payment of the loans they hold with financial institutions.
In order to prevent the auction of their properties, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the field of tourism met with the Minister of the Presidency, Carlos Ricardo Benavides and the chief of Tourism, Allan Flores.
Progress is being made on an agreement for freedoms of the air to boost tourism between the two countries by increasing air links.
A Costa Rican delegation composed of the chief of Tourism, Allan Flores and Ana Cristina Jenkins, Deputy Minister of Transport is currently visiting the Asian nation negotiating the agreement.
"There has been a lot of hard work done between the aviations bodies of each country, we have had discussions with airlines to stimulate interested in the route and in April a delegation of Costa Rica tourism entrepreneurs was in China," said Costa Rica's ambassador in Beijing, Marco Vinicio Ruiz.
The country will be promoted as a destination for congresses during the AIBTM fair which will take place between Tuesday and Thursday in Chicago, United States.
According to the chief of Tourism, Allan Flores, AIBTM's presence of 14 companies operating in the country, is part of a strategy to position Costa Rica in the conference and meetings market.
The National Convention Centre will require an investment of about $30 million.
Of this investment, $27 million will be for the facilities themselves and $3 million for the provisioning of the project, said the Minister of Tourism, Allan Flores.
"The convention center will be built on an area of 10 hectares that the Comprehensive Agricultural Marketing Program (PIMA) has given in administration for 25 years, extendible, to the ICT.
Macro figures for tourism in Costa Rica have already exceed those of the years before the global crisis of 2009, but the results obtained by operators are low.
During 2012, tourists who came to Costa Rica spent $2.425 billion, 34% more than in 2009, but the increase in income has not generated higher profits for the tourism sector.
For example, Miguel Zamora, owner of Hotel Cerro Chato Eco Lodge, in La Fortuna, San Carlos, said that although most tourists now come with increased spending power there are factors preventing the situation from making a profit for them.
The Costa Rican Institute of Tourism is prepares for the first half of 2013 a business mission to China in order to reach agreements with wholesale agencies.
Travelling with the mission will be Tourism Minister Allan Flores, whose aim is to sign an Trade Air agreement, which would complement the memorandum of understanding for the establishment of air services, signed last August during the visit of President of the Republic Laura Chinchilla .
The open skies agreement aims to increase flight frequencies and tourism between the two countries.
Under the agreement, Qatar airlines may operate in Costa Rican territory making stopovers from third party countries or transfers of passengers and vice versa.
"This agreement reinforces the commitment to strengthen the tourism industry by attracting airlines.
After having missed the deadline for renewing the period for the committee to analyze changes in order to make the System for Banking Development more diligent, the project remains stalled in Congress.
The work of the committee dates from May 2010 and the aim was to decide how to use the $320 million. This fund is made of 17% of bank’s current accounts.
Competing with giants like Mexico and Brazil, Costa Rica managed to attract 40,000 health tourists in 2010 and hopes to attract more with a variety of value added medical tourism offers.
Emphasizing treatments for Parkinsons, drug addiction, alcoholism and stress, including holistic therapies, Costa Rica is aiming to maximise opportunities in medical tourism, which attracted some 40,000 visitors in 2010, according to the Council for International Promotion of Medicine in Costa Rica (Promed).
The consolidation of medical tourism should help attract more foreign visitors and increase revenue in the country, which amounted to $288 million for these activities in 2011.
Ecotourism is not sufficient to promote the arrival of more foreign visitors to Costa Rica, estimates the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, and it therefore intends to increase its efforts to promote the country as an attractive destination for medical tourism and international conventions relating to this field.
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