QCOSTARICA — Costa Rica celebrated World Tourism Day on Friday, September 27, highlighting its commitment to environmental, economic and social sustainability, which has made this activity one of the main drivers of the country.
“We have never promoted mass tourism. Our tourism model is a sustainable model and from that point of view we have applied a series of tools over time,” Costa Rica’s Minister of Tourism, William Rodríguez, told EFE.
Costa Rica, a country of 5.1 million, receives nearly 2.5 million tourists each year, attracted mainly by the natural riches of this country, which houses around 5% of the planet’s biodiversity and protects nearly a third of its territory in national parks.
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Rodríguez said that tourism represents 8.2% of Costa Rica’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that sustainability is at the heart of the policies, which makes the country far from scenarios such as those of some European destinations, where local people have come out to protest against the huge number of tourists.
“Our National Tourism Plan has three axes: sustainability, innovation and inclusion. Sustainability understood in the broad concept of environmental, economic and social sustainability is essential that we maintain it as we have maintained it for many years,” said the minister.
The tourism minister commented that one of the important steps to guarantee sustainability is to determine the carrying capacity of people in national parks and protected areas, in order to analyze how far it can grow.
This year, World Tourism Day has the motto ‘Tourism and Peace’, promoted by UN Tourism due to the role that this activity has in uniting people and transforming communities, promoting inclusion, strengthening local economies and preserving cultural and natural heritage.
As part of the celebrations for World Tourism Day, Costa Rica’s museums had free admission to the public, one of these, the Museo Nacional (National Museum), where an official ceremony was held and a mural alluding to the riches of the country’s seven provinces was unveiled.
In 2023, Costa Rica reached a record number of tourists, with 2.47 million arrivals by air, for a growth of 16.7% compared to 2022, and 2.2% compared to 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) – Costa Rica’s tourism board.
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Rodríguez said that during 2024 the figures being recorded are “excellent” and that everything indicates that the annual growth target of 5.7% will be greatly exceeded, since by August the increase had been 12.6%.
During the first half of 2024, Costa Rican authorities conducted tourism promotion tours in Europe, the United States, and Mexico aimed at attracting high-net-worth and environmentally conscious travelers to these key destinations.
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