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Recommended magazine labels Costa Rica top Latin American destination |
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Costa Rica has just been named Latin America's premiere destination in 2003 by Recommended magazine, a U.S. publication aimed at tourist enterprises.
Costa Rican tourism minister Rodrigo Castro said in a press conference that his country walked off with the award from a meeting in Miami where the Central American nation equally grabbed the top prize to the best destination for adventure and ecological tourism in the region.
These awards show that we're doing things right and that our efforts are paying off, both among travelers and businesspeople from the tourist industry, he said.
Mr. Castro was elected to serve a two-year term as Chairman of the Americas Committee for the World Tourism Organization within the framework of a meeting recently held in China.
"These awards, he went on to say, come to beef up our image and our relations with other countries, let alone that they do highlight the leadership of our region as far as policies of sustainable development and responsible tourism are concerned", Mr. Castro commented.
Tourism is by far Costa Rica's major economic engine as the country welcomes over a million travelers every year who spend roughly $1.2 billion.
This year, the United States continued to be the number one sender of sunbathers to the Central American nation with as many as 202,182 trippers for a 9.3 percent more than in 2002.
Mr. Castro also praised the increasing number of European trekkers coming to Costa Rica, a figure that jumped from 54,720 in the first five months of 2002 to 64,219 in the same period of time this year.
The only market segment that took a plunge this year is South America whose figures crumbled down from 40,148 tourists in 2002 to 31,063 this time up, for a 22.6 percent slide.
"In the case of South America, Colombians are taking the lion's share of the drop since they are now required to apply for entry visas", Mr. Castro explained. We're very pleased with these results because they mean we're bouncing back from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he added.
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