Archive for April, 2008
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
When we agreed to join friends for a 12-day tour of Costa Rica, we knew so little about the country that we had to locate it on a map. The natural Wonders of Costa Rica sounded like a mellow adventure, especially since we were sharing it with others who were “60-plus.” The tour boasted mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls, hot springs, 60 species of mammals, 309 species of birds, thousands of kinds of plants and trees - all between two oceans in a country the size of West Virginia. It sounded like stepping into paradise for a few days. The only part that sounded a little challenging was a two-night, three-day stay in the Central American rain forest.
We entered the rain forest on the third day of the tour, with a bus trip through the Cordillera mountains. Tiny homes with sloped tin roofs dotted the lush landscape. The narrow, sometimes treacherous roads were often bordered by “living fences” - tree limbs planted in the rich soil, then wired to form boundaries.
We boarded a motor launch for a cruise along the Reventazón River to Pachira Lodge, near Tortuguero National Park. The lodge is accessible only by boat or plane, and the vast, intimidating jungle was on all sides during the ride.
In our simple rooms, the only sounds were those of the jungle - insects, birds, monkeys and occasional rain. There were no TVs, computers, radios, hair dryers or air conditioning. No wake-up calls, either, but our guide, Jorge, assured us that the night would bring cooler temperatures, and the howler monkeys would wake us at sunrise. Both predictions proved to be true.
The next day, on a trip along the forest canals, we saw beautiful birds and animals in their home. Cautious and silent, we observed monkeys, crocodiles and the smaller caimans, sloths, iguanas, toucans, macaws, and even a few blue morpho butterflies. We were all in awe of the rain forest’s splendor.
Jorge supplied us with ponchos - we were, after all, in the rain forest, and rain could come at any time. The lodge provided us with rubber boots, and the next day we hiked the forest trails surrounding the lodge. Dense foliage makes the national park inaccessible to most tourists, Jorge said, and these trails proved quite enough exploration for our group.
We then took a boat ride to the tiny village of Tortuguero and walked to the beaches on the Caribbean side. Jorge warned us to step over the paths of the industrious leaf-cutter ants as we trekked to the beach to stand on the very spots where the great sea turtles come to lay their eggs between July and October.
One definition of paradise is “a place of great beauty.” Costa Rica lives up to that definition. But our stay in its jungle proved more meaningful - there is a reverence for life that is inescapable.
As we left Pachira Lodge, the jungle around us felt magnificent - no longer intimidating.
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Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Fighting fires will soon become easier, thanks to a new bill to fix an alarming shortage of working fire hydrants.
Lawmakers voted yesterday to make fire hydrants a public good, to be installed and maintained by water providers and funded by the state.
Fire hydrants have been abandoned for decades because no one is legally responsible for their care. Costa Rica needs 10,000 fire hydrants, but it has only 5,000 and half of them function poorly, said Héctor Chaves, director of the Firefighters’ Corps.
It’s almost a national emergency, said National Liberation Party (PLN) lawmaker Fernando Sánchez. We are sending (firefighters) into a war without weapons.
Under the new bill, public and private water providers will pay for the hydrants by charging their clients a small tax, fixed by the state body ARESEP. The Firefighters Corps will help decide where to put the hydrants.
Fires destroy some 1,100 houses every year, often for lack of water, Chaves said. Two trucks, each with a thousand gallons of water, usually respond to a fire alarm. But because it takes a thousand gallons a minute to fight a fire, their water runs out after just two minutes, said Jorge Marrero, who directs the Firefighters’ Corps in the Central Pacific and southern zones.
Firefighters then turn to hydrants or rivers, or they call for another fire truck. Often, the closest hydrant is several blocks away and has little or no water.
A working fire hydrant can spew an average of 400 gallons per minute for up to two hours, Marrero said.
The National Insurance Institute (INS), which funds the Firefighters Corps, used to install and maintain fire hydrants, said Alvaro Escalante, who was corps director in the 1980s. But INS could not afford to keep pace with the growing population density.
Dozens of firefighters drove cranes and trucks to the doors of the Legislative Assembly yesterday, and they sounded sirens periodically for hours as lawmakers debated the bill.
The bill will become law once it is passed in a second vote and signed by the president.
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
GENERAL TIPS IN COSTA RICA
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Costa Rican lifestyle tends to be more laid-back than that of North American or European countries, be patient if things take longer to be done than in your home country.
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The road infrastructure (street conditions and road signals) in Costa Rica is not very developed, so be patient when traveling within the country.
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Cars do not yield to other cars or pedestrians! Be careful when you cross our streets.
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Buy coffee. Even if you’re not a coffee drinker, you’re bound to know someone who is and coffee is the best buy in Costa Rica.
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Wear conservative clothing. Foreigners often receive more attention than the want, and this is one way to help avoid it.
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Don’t forget to ask what comes on the food you order.
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Don’t leave things unattended on the beach while you’re swimming.
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Always carry a photocopy of your passport, showing your photograph and the date you entered the country. Leave the original in the safety deposit box at your hotel.
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Keep your airline ticket, important documents, cash and travelers checks in the hotel safe. Write the numbers of your travelers checks in a separate place.
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Always change your money at a bank or your hotel, never on the street.
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Don’t wear valuable jewelry and carry only the amount of money you’ll need for each day.
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Under no circumstances give money to traffic police or other police officers.
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Cabs are red with the license plate number painted in the middle of a yellow triangle on both doors and airport cabs are orange.
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Inside the National Parks follow the safety tips posted inside the parks, explore the trails in groups of two or more and do not touch the plants or attempt to pet the animals.
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At the beach find out what parts of the coast are safe and which are not and if you feel yourself being pulled out to sea, stay calm, do not try to swim directly to the shore, instead, swim parallel to the shore towards breaking waves and let them help you get back to the beach.
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If you are going out at night, have the hotel receptionist call you a cab.
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Please make every effort to have a minimal negative impact on the natural and human environment that you encounter and to conserve natural resources.
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Costa Rica has been named as one of the top destinations for health tourism, a growing industry of people traveling abroad to have cosmetic surgery that is too costly back home. Other countries in the top 5 were Malaysia, Panama, India and Brazil.
These countries are most popular because of their advanced, high quality health services, and low costs. Malaysia and India attract people from all over the world, as do Costa Rica Brazil, and Panama, but the latter three attract the most U.S. citizens, because of the above reasons as well as their Americanised cultures.
Costa Rica’s medical tourism industry is one part of the economy that has been growing lately, and experts predict this is a market sector that will continue to see growth for the foreseeable future, especially given that these places are developing people’s trust having been popular with medical tourists for a few years now, and benefiting from word of mouth. Trust is an integral part of a developing country becoming popular with medical tourists.
The releases have touched on the growing medical tourism industry in Costa Rica before, but only that growth in the sector will continue Costa Rica’s ability to grow economically, and how the incoming visitors are strengthening the rental market in Costa Rica.
The factors not mentioned were, that countries like Costa Rica, in order to maintain their reputation as a medical tourism destination, must make themselves attractive to specialist surgeons from more advanced countries. To do this they rely on the ability to provide high quality rented accommodation. This is excellent news for the Costa Rica property market.
Medical tourism is yet another growing string to Costa Rica’s economic bow, which already has unique tourist attracting features, like the fact that it boasts five percent of the world’s ecology, in only 0.003% of the world’s land mass. But other places in Latin America have equally rich and diverse ecological systems; Costa Rica is set apart by its stability and safety, making it ideal for family holidays.
Costa Ricans readily boast that their country has no need for an army, the country is so peaceful that schoolchildren oversee election parades, and there are more doctors in the country than policemen and women. Perhaps the latter feature played a part in Costa Rica ranking above the U.S. in a recent study into world health services, and also plays a part in Costa Rica’s success in the new medical tourism phenomenon.
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
The consumption of coffee is increasing in China, particularly by young people and the 40 million of tourists who visit that nation every year. Costa Rican growers are taking steps to take advantage of that fact, said Rodrigo Vargas, of Doka Estate plantation in Alajuela. He added that they are planning to take advantage of Chinese tourism also, particularly with tours to show them all of the steps of the production of coffee. This surfaced in a visit by Chinese diplomats to the plantation, which will be followed by that of high authorities from Beijing.
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
This year’s first quarter, the number of tourists increased by 92,000 –or 17 percent—as compared to the first three months in 2007. The overall number of visitors corresponds to those flying into Juan Santamaria and Daniel Oduber international airports. According to Minister of Tourism Carlos Benavides, a majority of the visitors come from the United States, in spite of fears that recession in that nation would result in a decrease in the number of leisure travelers.
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
The new national stadium that is set to be built to replace the current stadium as a gift from the Chinese government has already undergone inspection by Chinese designers and they have announced that the original plans will be altered.
The plans were originally sketched out to make the stadium hold 45,000 people however the capacity has now been down graded to 35,000. Despite the 10,000 drop in capacity, this is still 20,000 more people than what the stadium can currently hold at the moment.
This isn’t the only plan to change either as China plan to bring over their own workers to mainly build the stadium rather than use contract work here in Costa Rica. The Chinese construction workers will set up a camp near the stadium and will work on the stadium over 24 hours a day.
Even the finish date of the project has been put back to end in May 2010 rather than the original plans to finish 6 months earlier in November 2009.
As the Chinese are yet to start the project and it is their money that is being used to pay for the stadium, it appears that the Costa Rican government is going to have little say in the plans to build the stadium.
The new national stadium is already experiencing some major changes in its plans and with the Costa Rican government having little influence in the plans, it is possible that the Chinese may still change the plans even more, whether its going to be better or worse for the stadium.
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica has suspended legal cooperation with the United States and filed a diplomatic protest over what it called the “disrespectful” treatment of its attorney general at the Miami International Airport.
In a letter describing the incident, Attorney General Francisco Dall’Anese said a security officer at the airport allowed him into the United States on April 23, but accompanied him to an airline counter to make sure he arranged a return flight for the next day.
The official was traveling to meet his U.S. counterpart, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and to attend a court hearing involving a man implicated in a corruption scandal in Costa Rica.
He said that after the check, a U.S. agent accompanied him to airline offices “to make sure of our departure.”
Dall’Anese said Friday he was suspending all cooperation with U.S. prosecutors on judicial cases, including extraditions, until those responsible are punished and his government is reimbursed for the cost of the trip.
Costa Rica’s Foreign Relations Department said it filed an “energetic” diplomatic note and called the security stop “an offense against our attorney general, an offense to all Costa Ricans.”
The U.S. government said Dall’Anese had been subjected to a “routine security check” that is common when a passenger’s name matches or is similar to a person of interest. But officials apologized nonetheless.
“We are investigating the circumstances and we have expressed our apologies to the Costa Rican government,” the U.S. Embassy in San Jose said in a statement. “We never intended any disrespect for Dall’Anese, the government of Costa Rica or its citizens. We value the close relationship we have and we will do everything in our power to make sure it continues.”
The Embassy said if it had known of the trip, it would have ensured that “all entrance courtesies would have been extended to Mr. Dall’Anese.”
But Dall’Anese responded that “the apology of the U.S. Embassy is not sufficient.”
In November, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa complained that he did not receive special diplomatic treatment at a Miami airport security checkpoint and said he would avoid traveling through the U.S.
By MARIANELA JIMENEZ
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Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Campbellford – CDHS student Erica Edwards has been specially selected as one of 30 volunteers to represent Canada on Youth Challenge International’s Project Costa Rica.
Following extensive testing, Edwards was chosen from a large number of applicants from across the nation to help coordinate community-based projects throughout the Central American country.
In addition to helping people in that country, participants will have the opportunity to live and work with local community members as well as a group of international youth from Australia and Guyana.
Edwards said she has always enjoyed helping people less fortunate than herself and she would like someday to earn a living helping people overseas.Her school’s guidance councillor, who had done similar work himself, recommended her for the project.
The volunteers will be evaluated once they arrive in Costa Rica to see where they will best fit into projects on the go, and will be assigned the work they will do at that time.
Edwards said she would like to teach English to students there, but she could wind up creating national park trails through the rainforest, implementing programs geared towards youth skills development, women’s rights, or local ecotourism, or working on construction projects designed to meet basic community needs like access to clean drinking water.
Volunteers are required to pay their own expenses on the five-week venture. YCI does not provide funding for them.
Edwards is asking for financial help from the community. She needs $3,000 for her trip in July, but she and her sister Shannon will be paying for the additional expenses of clothing and airfare themselves.
Donations are tax deductible and can be made through the YCI website here.
To learn more about the work that YCI does with Canadian and global youth, visit www.yci.org.
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Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Pre-paid Cell Service for Costa Rica.
ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electicidad or the Costa Rican Electricity Institute), the government institution currently with monopoly control over Costa Rica’s telecommunications, announced that today, 2,000 never-activated GSM lines will go back into the pool of available phone lines.
With waiting lists that go on for months, some Costa Ricans purchase a SIM card whenever they get the chance, even if they don’t intend to immediately use it. Though this is understandable, each un-activated GSM line is one that another Costa Rican would use, and so ICE has planned to cancel 2,000 never-activated cell phone lines.
Elberth Durán, spokesperson for ICE, says that all affected cellular line owners have until the end of today to activate their lines. Activation costs ¢12,500 (about $25), and must be done at an ICE office or authorized retailer. If you own a solicitud (application) between 81911314 and 82093105 and don’t activate it, your number will be resold to someone else.
In other Costa Rica cell phone news, earlier this month, La Aurtoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep, the Public Services Regulatory Authority) authorized ICE to sell pay-as-you-go SIM cards, which will function much like their North American counterparts. Such service is actually available in just about every other Latin American country except for Costa Rica at the moment.
For those on vacation to Costa Rica, those who don’t use their cell phone very much, or those who need a quick fix while waiting for a permanent line, this new payment plan will be ideal. Cards will be sold in values of ¢2,500 (approximately $5), ¢5,000 ($10), and ¢10,000 ($20). Though a new concept for cell phones in Costa Rica, these new cards will be very similar to the phone cards ticos use for public phones, which are not coin-operated.
ICE’s ¢2,500 card will buy you 62 minutes worth of talk time, averaging $0.08/minute, and will expire 30 days after its first use. The ¢5,000 card will purchase 135 minutes of cell phone service, and average of about $0.074/minutes, and will expire 45 days after the first call. Lastly, the ¢10,000 pre-paid card will afford uses 294 minutes of service, averaging $0.068 per minute of local calls, and will expire 60 days after activation.
However, like all phone service in Costa Rica, Aresep has established different rates depending on time of day: for the ¢5,000 card, daytime minutes will cost ¢37 (about $0.0753/minute) and nighttime minutes will run ¢30 (about $0.061). The higher your card value, the less you’ll pay: the ¢10,000 card has daytime minutes at ¢34 ($0.0692) and nighttime at ¢28 (¢0.057). Text messages will cost ¢1.7, or $0.0035.
There will surely be a few bumps in the road with ICE’s new prepaid wireless plans, but after the wrinkles get ironed out, it promises to be a welcome service to Costa Rica’s telecom services. With this additional service, as well as ICE’s plans to increase available home phone lines, ICE moves toward the future as a more-competitive company, a designation that will prove to be quite necessary in the assumed wake of CAFTA’s approval.
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Friday, April 25th, 2008
The main objective of the new law “Ley de Cobro Judicial” which goes into effect next May is to change the habit of many Costa Ricans of not paying their debts.
According to one of the promoters of the legislation, superior civil court judge, Gerardo Parajeles Vindas, the objective is to allow an easier and speedier judicial process of bill collection.
One of the beneficiaries of the new legislation are banks and financial institution in that it will allow them to complete the process of collecting on bad credit card debt from one year that it takes now to three months once the new law is in effect.
Parajeles denied that the legislation is an judicial instrument against debtors, but rather a modern legislation, fundamental to the economy of the country that guarantees investors the fast recovery of debts.
The Ley de Cobro Judicial was published in the official government publication, La Gaceta, on November 20 and goes into effect on May 20, 2008.
The current process of recovering debt is long and cumbersome, required some four processes, depending ont he debt - ejecutivos simples, monitorio, prendario and hipotecario - and divided into “mayor cuantía” for debts of ¢600.000 colones or more and “menor cuantía” for debts inferior of ¢600.000 colones.
The Ley de Cobro Judicial will eliminate the four processes and create one, “Juzgados Especializados en Cobro”, and eliminate the lower and higher amounts, which can be accessed in all judicial circuits, San José, Goicoechea, Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago.
Parajeles explained that the implementation of the new law forms a group of judges that process the cases in a reasonable time.
The judge added that another objective of the legislation is to create an electronic process whereby the case, once filed, all its motions and decisions will be available online by way of the internet, including any judgments of salary withholding and liens on properties.
Parajeles said that 95% of the cases involving debt recovery involve credit cards. In the first half of this year alone, 20.396 such cases were filed.
The new legislation will also make it easier for recovery of property, like a vehicle, for example, where it can be auctioned off and the money used to pay down the debt.
With the current law, the auction process can take 3 or 4 months and it requires the physical presence of a judge at the auction. Under the new law, a judicial official will attend the auction and as such auction can be carried out every day, instead of having to wait for a judge to have an opening his or her calendar.
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Thursday, April 24th, 2008
In response to a dramatic increase in the presence of offshore banks in Costa Rica, the President of the Central Bank, Francisco Gutierrez, announced that a bill was sent to the Legislative Assembly last week to try to even the tax requirements paid by offshore banks in the country. Currently, offshore banks are exempt from paying a 15% tax on the money they earn from the interest on loans taken out by Costa Rica nationals.
The current law controlling this requires that offshore banks pay a flat tax of $125,000, which is far lower than the price that local banks pay. Local “first class” banks also do not have to pay the tax, this currently includes 221 banks, which are labeled based on certain criteria defined by the Central Bank regarding their contributions to national interests and the well-being of the general population
The bill that was sent to the Legislative Assembly would get rid of the constitutional article that allows for certain banks to not pay the tax. The decision came about due to the Central Bank’s wish to discourage offshore banks in Costa Rica because they do not fall under their supervision and control. They also don’t want to create different tax obligations for some banks and not others.
According to a recent Costa Rica Pages article, the amount of funds invested in offshore banks in Costa Rica has increased by 65% over the past three years, and exceeded $2.4 billion at the end of last year.
If the bill is passed, offshore banks would have to pay the 15% tax. This increase in operating costs would make interest rates on loans from such offshore banks rise an estimated 1.2 to 1.5 percent, thus eliminating some of the current advantages the banks have over Costa Rica banks.
“The idea is to level the playing field”, the President of the Central Bank stated.
There is still the option of keeping the list of “first class” banks which would continue to enjoy the tax exemption. In this case the Central Bank would be able to include certain offshore banks that are dedicated to investing in positive development in the country. It was suggested that the requirements to be added to this list of banks would increase so that banks would have to work harder to enjoy the exemption.
Some of the offshore banks in Costa Rica that would be affected include: Scotiabank, Promérica, Banco Cuscatlán, HSBC, BCT and BAC San Jose.
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Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Costa Rica exported goods worth $2.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, compared to $2.2 billion during the same period last year.
But that 7.6% growth in exports did not bless all sectors of the economy.
Among the winners, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX), was the agriculture sector, which grew 10%, thanks to good performances from the pineapple, banana and coffee harvests. Exports of cantaloupe, however, suffered a 15% blow due to bad weather conditions.
Another strong showing was posted in the food industry, whose sales abroad increased 30%, thanks to palm oil, prepared foods, juices and fruit spreads.
Industrial exports grew 6.3%, due to improved sales of goods such as computer parts and medical implants, COMEX said.
Exports of textiles, however, fell 24%. The decrease, according to the ministry, was caused by the closure of several businesses that have lost customers in the delay surrounding the implementation of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), which voters approved in a referendum last October.
The United States continued to be the principal destination for Costa Rican exports, despite a 4.6% drop in exports to that country. Other big trading partners were Costa Rica’s Central American neighbors, China and the European Union.
Last year, exports totaled $9.34 billion, 14% more than the $8.2 billion in 2006.
Trade authorities have set a goal of $18 billion in annual exports by 2010. However, that goal seems to be getting harder to achieve, according to various official sources.
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
I can’t say I’m surprised at the government’s knee-jerk reaction to the possibility that Russian investors are coming to Costa Rica and setting up a casino and hotel. The government here seems to love swinging the pendulum from one extreme to another — from fairly open regulations to draconian arbitrary rules that are sure to face court challenges and rampant non-compliance. I suppose North American and European countries are the specialists at slowly and gradually adjusting the legal dial until they get what they want.
If Costa Rica doesn’t want investors that are possibly tied to the Russian mafia, they should fish for a reason to deny their casino permits like they seem to do to the rest of us. I’m sure a good one will be found — maybe within the scope of anti-money laundering regulations.
Punishing the entire casino industry, plunging thousands of local jobs into uncertainty, is not the way to go. Such abrupt and arbitrary actions by the executive branch, bypassing the legislative system, without even the inkling of foresight needed to add a grandfather clause, gives Costa Rica a poor image to tourists and foreign investors bringing their much-needed funds to this country.
Imagine the plight of the casino-bound U.S. tourist choosing to return to Costa Rica in part because he liked the casinos down here. He’s not going to check on how much local laws have changed before booking his trip, because frankly he can’t imagine that some countries allow their laws to take brutal 180-degree turns. When he comes down and realizes that casinos are now only open for a few hours per day, he’ll ponder what changes are in store for his next trip to Costa Rica, and pick a more reasonable place to visit — not to mention tell his friends.
All this to keep a few Russians out of town. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater!
Story by Jeff Alami
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Despite a sputtering U.S. economy and concerns over runaway development in the region, Costa Rica’s northwestern Guanacaste province continues to put up record tourism numbers, according to statistics released yesterday.
Tourist arrivals at the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste’s principal tourism hub, rose 13% in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to a marketing study commissioned by the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA).
Citing numbers from the Civil Aviation Authority, CATURGUA reported 156,028 tourists came through the airport from January through March, considered the peak of the year’s tourism high season. Tourism numbers begin to drop off after March as the country enters its rainy season, and commonly don’t spike again until December.
Tourism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides, speaking at a press conference yesterday held to announce the new figures, highlighted the good reputation Costa Rica appears to be enjoying among the visitors to Guanacaste.
“That 96% say that they are going to recommend us seems to me a fantastic product, considering that the majority of people that arrive in this country do because it was recommended by a friend or family member,” Benavides said. “It’s not all destinations in the world where people tend to come, or return again, with the frequency that you see in Costa Rica.”
According to the CATURGUA study, carried out by the marketing firm C&D Consultores, 48% of the tourists interviewed had already been to Costa Rica on a prior trip, up from 36% during the 2007 high season and 28% during the 2006 peak.
The research found that nearly three out of four (74%) visitors came from the United States and the rest (26%) came from Canada.
C&D Consultores interviewed 300 passengers at the Daniel Oduber airport, approaching passengers seated in seats pre-selected by the firm.
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