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December 19, 2007 |
| Costa Rica's Tourism Booming |
| By Inside Costa Rica |
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Tourism minister, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, is boasting Costa Rica's achievement of an 11.5% increase in tourism this year over 2006.
Benavides detailed that 1.9 million visits were made to Costa Rica this year, 66% of them coming from North America, mainly the United States, 17% from Europe, 7% from South America and the balance from other countries.
"This has been a good year", said Benavides.
Some of the airlines to join in the Costa Rican tourism boom were Spirit, Frontier, ChampionAir and Sunwing Airlines (the latter two charters), along with European airlines First Choice, AirCaraibes and Air Comet, providing regular scheduled service to and from Costa Rica's San José and Liberia airports.
The tourism minister added that the increased tourism has meant an increase in tourism related investments in the country. Hilton, Marriott and Crown hotel chains have all announced plans to build resorts in Costa Rica worth some us$800 million dollars. Benavides said that he sees that figure climb to us$1 billion in 2008.
Costa Rica's objective for 2008 is for a 4% to 5% growth in tourism, adding new markets like Asia, where Costa Rica has spent a lot of attention to attract China's tourism sector following renewing diplomatic ties earlier this year. |
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