Archive for July 6th, 2010
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Its only five and six months behind schedule, but by November the expansion of the Juan Santamaría (San José) airport will be complete.
Aeris Holding Costa Rica, the new operator of the country’s largest international airport took over in May 2009 and has been working to deliver the completed project by November.
The outside structure is complete, what is not is the interior.
Aeris has invested us$40 million dollars to complete the work, which it will recover, along with a profit, on a concession contract that ends in 2026.
Aeris took over from Alterra Partners that built the first stage – less than half of the complete project – of the airport and ran it for eight years.
Eduardo Chamberlain, Aeris’ director of engineering, says that the airport will require and expansion to 18 gates and an expansion of the runway.
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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Due to the traditional rise in requests for drivers licenses during the month of July, the Departamento de Acreditación de Conductores, in La Uruca, San José, will be open from 8am to 6pm, two hours longer than normal.
The mid-year school vacation period in July is the main reason many head out to the drivers licensing offices to obtain a new or renew their licenses.
Drivers licenses can be renewed up to three months before expiry.
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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
One of the men accused of being a member of the “illegals” network of Russian spies had two maps of Costa Rica with him when he was arrested.
The discovery has led those close to the case to suggest that “Richard Murphy”, who lived with his wife “Cynthia Murphy” and their daughters Kate, 11, and Lisa, nine, in Montclair, New Jersey, was prepared to flee, perhaps never to see his family again.
The FBI swooped because they feared that all 11 alleged members of the spy ring might disappear. Anna Chapman, 28, had become suspicious about an approach to her by a man who indicated that he was a Russian official but was really an undercover FBI agent.
Mikhail Semenko, 28, had also been approached by an undercover FBI agent. Semenko was the first of the 11 to be arrested when FBI agents swooped on his flat in Arlington, Virginia, a week ago.
The other nine living in America were arrested on the Sunday evening while “Christopher Metsos”, alleged to have been the money man, was arrested in Cyprus the next day. He was granted bail and then disappeared.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the US Department of Justice, said: “These arrests had to be carried out when they were for several critical law enforcement and operational reasons. Among these reasons was the fact that one of the suspects was scheduled to depart the United States on Sunday and had to be arrested before departure.”
Donna Newman, the defence lawyer for “Mr Murphy” described the case against him as “a lot of hyperbole”.
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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
At this year’s annual Expotur 2010 travel and tourism conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, tourism officials reiterated their commitment to promoting and delivering sustainable travel and addressed the potential for tourism growth in Costa Rica. This year’s theme — Creating the Perfect Business Climate — was appropriate, as the Costa Rica Association of Professionals in Tourism (ACOPROT) hosted hundreds of travel companies and industry professionals from May 20-21 in San Jose, Costa Rica. This year’s sponsors included Continental’s Copa Airlines, the Britt Coffee Tour, Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Worldwide.
The night before the annual trade show, now in its 26th year, opened on May 20, tourism and government officials gathered at the Museo de Los Ninos (Children’s Museum) in San Jose for the official inaugural ceremony. Delivering the keynote address was Alfio Piva, the first vice president of Costa Rica under the newly elected Laura Chinchilla, the country’s first female president who was sworn in on May 8.
In Piva’s speech, he said that, “The secret of Costa Rica’s tourism industry is the industry’s commitment to sustainability and conservation … Sustainable tourism is not just for naturalists; it is for everyone.”
For a number of years, Costa Rica has built its tourism reputation on sustainable travel at a time when many other destinations have only recently begun to promote eco-friendly travel practices and options.
The Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program
In 1999, the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT), or Costa Rica Tourism Board, created the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) Program. This program, which is somewhat similar to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), ranks applying hotels on the degree to which they comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural and social resource management.
In the 10 years since its launch, the program has continued to grow and to gain international recognition. Today, tourism officials were quick to point out that programs such as the CST were not only good for the planet but also good for the economy and business.
“It’s a program that has been commended internationally, and we’ve shared it with other countries, too,” said Carlos Lizama, president of ACOPROT. “Sustainability is a responsibility for those of us living on this planet. We need to understand that this is the main reason but it’s also convenient from the economic point of view to know that there are more groups and more demanding tourists who only want to stay in sustainable hotels. Being sustainable is good but is also has to be a good business.”
Sustainability for All
Although Lizama and other tourism officials touted the success of the CST program, they also noted that there was room for overall improvement in the country’s plans for making all of the destination’s tourism as sustainable as possible.
“Sustainability is a permanent challenge,” said Carlos Benavides Jimenez, the Costa Rica minister of tourism. “The challenges and threats to [100 percent sustainable tourism] are business practices more so than policy. Sustainability is seen and respected here. The problems are with implementations and how to promote wealth for citizens and opportunities.”
Benavides Jimenez also said that he viewed eco-friendly tourism as something that can — and should — be applied on an industry-wide scale, and not just limited to smaller businesses or travel niches.
“Sustainability doesn’t only have to be thought of on a small scale,” he said. “We’ve developed standards that are applicable to the industry everywhere … to be as universal as possible is the biggest challenge.”
Looking ahead, Benavides Jimenez said that the ICT was looking to extend its popular CST program to other travel-related organizations such as car rental companies and tour operators and the expansion of its Blue Flag program to natural areas, which currently awards blue flags to beach areas that promote and maintain high water quality and low water consumption.
More Hotels, More Growth
Although Costa Rica, as with many other travel destinations worldwide, has had to grapple with the current global economic crisis, Benavides Jimenez said that more hotel and visitor growth was also a major objective for the ICT.
“Demand is lower now but we know that in the next few years there should be at least 5,000 to 6,000 more rooms,” he said.
Looking at tourism figures for 2009, he said that the U.S. and Canada are still the country’s strongest markets; 60 percent of income collected from air transportation into Costa Rica comes from the U.S. and Canada.
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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
What does Leonardo DiCaprio and pay per head services have in common? A movie in the works! The pay per head services, on line betting industry, online casino, will be put on the big screen with Leonardo Di Caprio born November 11th, 1974 in Los Angeles, California is the main actor targeting the underground business over in Costa Rica. Leonardo DiCaprio best known for his outstanding performance in Titanic, Aviator, Catch me if you can, and many others will be starring in this sure to be a great saga from Paramount pictures are going to finance the project and the people that wrote Ocean’s Thirteen and based on Costa Rica and their underground pay per head services, sports betting , and online casino will be doing the story.
The story or what it is going to be based on is not really known for sure, just so much is known, such as Paramount along with writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien have scripted an idea before close to what the idea of this project, is named Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton as high rollers in the underground gambling scene in poker. The new project might be a continuation of rounders.
Costa Rica have been in the sport book services known to us all as pay per head services have been around have been around for about 15 years Making Costa Rica the place to call if you want to bet. Price per hear services in Costa Rica have long lasted and given their respective owner unimaginable profits!
Price per head companies like bookmakesrinc will most likely have lines on this production to be a hit or not. Leonardo has been an active actor since 1990 many of his roles have earned him the honor of being nominated for best actor, or have gotten him the best actor awards.
When asked if he like online casino’s he responded: “I used to enjoy a little online gambling before it became illegal in the United States. It will be interesting to see this subject in a film. There’s something very strange about people trusting their money to a website that may or may not pay out. ” DiCaprio stated.
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