Friday, March 13th, 2009
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica Wang Xiaoyuan set on Thursday the first stone of the new National Stadium of Costa Rica, which is a donation by China.
Costa Rican sports authorities, Costa Rican cabinet Ministers, Peruvian outstanding sportsmen and special guests attended the ceremony.
The new stadium will be located in the same place of the old one, which was 80 years and it was demolished last year; it will have a capacity of 35,000.
China invested in the new stadium 83 million U.S. dollars, and according to the responsible ones of the project it is estimated it will be ready in 23 months.
“Thanks to the enormous generosity of the Chinese people, this dream will be possible in some months. Today we set the first stone of a stadium equal to the passion of our people; a stadium that will be the heart of a country, in the middle of the city,” Arias said.
The new building will have the offices of the 32 federations of the different sports played in the county, an athletics trail and a sports museum.
This new stadium is part of the cooperation agreements that China and Costa Rica signed after the reset of their diplomatic ties in 2007.
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Friday, March 13th, 2009
The tourism industry worldwide is suffering under the throes of the current economic crisis and Costa Rica is no exception. We have known for some time now that there is tremendous opportunity in “medical tourism” as a niche in the Costa Rican tourism repertoire. Now the government has made it official by declaring that medical tourism is in the national interest. It is expected that in 2009 some 20,000 tourists will arrive for various medical and dental procedures. Why? Because Costa Rica offers such procedures at a fraction of the cost of those same procedures in the U.S., which is the country of major draw for medical tourism to Costa Rica. And quality is not in question since according to the World Health Organization Costa Rica ranks 36th of 191 countries in terms of the quality of its health care systems.
Most procedures take place at the two internationally certified “private” hospitals, Cima and Clinica Biblica. Also, many recuperation centers are now available that offer luxury accommodations, an all-inclusive meal plan and nursing care. According to statistics a medical tourism related visit to Costa Rice generally has a duration of about 11 days and the tourist will not only spend money on the medical procedures themselves, but also for general tourist related activities.
So now that the government has made medical tourism a priority for the country, what is the strategy to increase it? A five part strategy was disclosed that includes promoting medical tourism outside the country, especially in the U.S., providing incentives for careers in medicine to attract qualified personnel to the industry, promoting accreditation of the country’s hospital and other health care facilities, creating alliances with insurers and large employers that can send patients to Costa Rica for treatment, and attracting investment in medical infrastructure.
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