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.
Starting June 6, the U.S. airline will resume flights to Juan Santamaria and Daniel Oduber Quiros international airports, offering a daily route from Houston, Texas to San Jose and Liberia, as well as a weekly flight from Baltimore, Maryland to Guanacaste.
There are nine airlines connecting our country with the U.S., our main tourist source market: Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska, American Airlines, JetBlue, Spirit, Sun Country, Frontier (as of July 1) and Southwest (as of June 6), informed the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.
Arguing that there is a risk due to the Covid-19 outbreak and that in some areas precautions should be taken due to criminal acts, the US advised its citizens to reconsider travel to El Salvador and not to travel to the other countries of the region.
In the case of El Salvador, the alert level is 3, which recommends its citizens to reconsider their travel.
In the context of the economic reactivation, the airline KLM announced that as of June 29 they will resume three weekly flights on the usual Amsterdam-San José-Liberia-Amsterdam route.
KLM will fly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays arriving at the Juan Santamaria International Airport at 1:05 p.m.
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).
Central America must be the driving force behind a globally accepted document that will be vital for the recovery of the global economy and tourism in particular.
The generation of a physical or digital document of global acceptance (like national passports) that certifies that the bearer has been vaccinated against Covid-19 will facilitate the movement of people that has been severely restricted as part of the measures adopted by governments, both locally and internationally, to contain the pandemic.
Since the borders were reopened and the country began to receive visitors, tourists have purchased more international policies, a situation that could be explained by the lower prices compared to insurance offered locally.
Data from the Costa Rican Ministry of Health show that between August 1, 2020 and February 11, 2021, 209,779 health insurance policies have been filed. Of the total number of policies, 54% are international, 34% from Sagicor and 12% from the National Insurance Institute (INS).
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 the alert that health authorities have issued for the appearance of a new SARS-CoV-2 strain and in line with the decision made by El Salvador, the governments of Panama and Guatemala will also ban the entry of people from the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Due to the new variant of Covid-19, the National Operation Center decided to temporarily suspend as of 11:59 p.m. on December 21 the entry into the country of those who have stayed or transited through the United Kingdom and the Republic of South Africa in the last 20 days, informed the Presidency of Panama.
The international chain began to operate in the Santa Ana district of the country's capital a hotel that has 143 rooms and halls for social events.
The new Hilton Garden Inn Santa Ana, will focus on attracting clients from the international and local corporate sector, since the meeting rooms are equipped with the most advanced technology to hold meetings, trainings, seminars, among other activities.
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 decrease in tourist arrivals is due to the crisis generated by the outbreak of covid-19 at a global level.
When the pandemic began, interest among Central Americans in travel agency and other tourism-related services dropped significantly, and although it rebounded in mid-May, in recent weeks it has again reported a downward trend.
Through a system that monitors in real time changes in consumer interests and preferences in Central American countries, developed by CentralAmericaData, it is possible to project short and long term demand trends for different products, sectors and markets operating in the region.
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