A total of 1.32 million tourists arrived in Costa Rica in the first six months of 2013, which is an increase of 2.7% over the same period last year, according to data provided by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT).
The majority of the visitors from January to June arrived at the Juan Santamaría international airport in San José, followed by the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia, while the remainder arrived by land at the Peñas Blancas (Nicaragua) and Paso Canoas (Panama) borders.
According to Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (immigration) records, the month with the lowest number of arrivals was May.
The Minister of Tourism, Allan Flores, said that among the most important aspects of the data is the rebounding of emerging markets such as China, Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
Flores noted that the growth for the second half of 2013 is expected to stay close to the World Tourism Organization estimates of between 3% and 4%.
That’s about equal to Cuba’s tourism…..and it’s banned to US travelers. Nothing to jump up and cheer about for Costa Rica.
Can you imagine that? How many Nicas came back to work? How many used hotels and how much was spent per dayt. Ask any, I mean any hotel how profitable was their income stream? I assure “negative”.