Costa Rica: Favorite destination for educational tourism
Costa Rica is characterized by natural and cultural attractions. These elements capture the attention of tourists that come to visit our country to relax and also favor the development of educational and academic tourism.
Educational tourism, apart from promoting sustainable development in different areas, as well as learning and training, favors the development of studies concerning the exuberant biodiversity that characterizes Costa Rica.
According to web page www.tourism.co.cr, educational tourism is generated in Costa Rica by the management of organizations that are not primarily tourism-oriented, but provide support to environmental and social programs.
This site points out that institutions oriented towards research, education and conservation are those that have been actively involved in educational tourism, developing programs in different fields, such as science tourism, academic tourism and volunteering.
The development of educational tourism involves planning according to a didactic and methodological frame which is very similar to teaching. Learning by experience is a pivotal issue in the methodology developed by educational tourism, given that it is based on experiences, community intervention and application of sustainable development models.
Enhancing educational tourism implies a better preparation and educational, cultural and scientific training, according to web site www.naya.org.ar. This kind of tourism does not mean to carry out poorly developed activities; instead, it must generate meaningful experiences that go beyond tour-guided visits to tourist places.
Educational tourism in our country shows a great impact abroad. According to a survey carried out in the US with 75 tour operators belonging to a student travel association, Costa Rica is one of the favorite destinations for this market niche.
Moreover, National Geographic selected our country as one of the destinations for their student travel programs. The goal is to give professionals the opportunity to combine their knowledge with learning from new cultures and becoming aware of the need to protect nature.
It is important for tourism in Costa Rica to enter different market niches that will diversify the tourist product and consequently attract different target audiences, for instance, the one in this particular case, that is, people who seek to learn from natural experiences and the knowledge of ecological and natural diversity that characterize our country.
