More than 1.2 million tourists made their way to Costa Rica in the first nine months of 2007, a 11.3% increase over the same period in 2006, according to official figures provided by the Cámara Nacional de Turismo (CANATUR).

The numbers represent the number of foreigners coming to Costa Rica during January and September of this year.

CANATUR officials say the numbers reflect an important increase in the number visits for the tourism sector.

Tourism officials explained that the numbers are taken from reported entries at the Juan Santamaría (San José) international and the Daniel Oduber (Liberia) international airports. The report shows that January, March and July saw the greatest number of visitors.

CANATUR estimates that the tourism industry employs 110.000 people directly and another 550.000 indirectly and half of the jobs are taken up by women.

In 2006, a total of 1.6 million visitors were recorded that generating some us$1.6 billion dollars in revenue, representing 8% of the Gross National Product.