Human capital of Costa Rican tourist industry represents one of its main competitive advantages.
The training efforts done these last years have harvested fruit, but are not enough for the challenges we face said Carlos Ricardo Benavides, Minister of Tourism.
The quality of the human capital of Costa Rico's tourism industry has been mentioned internationally as one of the main strategic factors making the country competitive, one of the est destinations in the world, Nevertheless, challenges faced by the sector in the future demand a higher investment in training and academic preparation of that work force.
The 2nd International Congress of Tourist Education, activity organized by the Costa Rican Association of Professionals in Tourism (ACOPROT) and by the National Commission of Tourism Education, brings together teachers, academic coordinators, Tourism students, impresarios, public functionaries from entities related with tourism and education, and international experts, in Costa Rica. They will discuss subjects crucial for improvement of the industry.
This is a meeting for educators to discuss on how to develop better education tools, to use and train those forming part of the national tourism industry, expressed Carlos Lizama, president of ACOPROT.
An estimated 100,000 people work directly in Costa Rica's tourism industry and another 400,000 give their services indirectly too sector expecting to serve 2 millions clients by the end of this year. In this sense he mentioned the need to dote the National Commission for Tourist Education with larger resources and budget, and assured that "we are going to make it."
Gonzalo Vargas, president of the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR), affirmed that the growth experienced by the sector during the last years has motivated a larger demand of trained personnel, "which forces us to widen the offer of training and make it adequate to the specific needs of impresarios."
A similar opinion was shared by Ana Elena Chacón, president of the Legislative Assembly's Commission for Tourism: "Education is the basic tool we have, to retain the success experienced by the national tourism industry."
The lectures during the 2nd International Congress on Tourist Education dealt with four main axes: pedagogical improvements for development of better prepared and competent professionals, marketing, sustainable tourism and gastronomy.
Among others, these themes will be dealt with: "The Human Capital as Strategic Factor for Tourism Development, "The Curricular Development for Work Competences," "Country Identity as Tourism Destination," "Biodiversity and Climatic Change" and "World Tendencies in Gastronomic Services,"
