QCOSTARICA – Costa Rica closed the year 2022 with the arrival of 2,349,537 tourists (by air land and sea), that is, more than one million passengers than in 2021.
This means that the country recovered 3 out of 4 tourists (75%) of the pre-pandemic year, of which 90% (2,117,960) arrived by air.
According to figures published by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) – Costa Rican Tourism Board – the 2.3 million tourists is consistent with the scenarios published in the monthly reports throughout last year and is higher than the growth scenario for 2022 included in the National Tourism Plan 2022- 2027, which had forecast 2,023,781 tourists for 2022.
“These numbers are the extraordinary result of the joint effort of public sector actors and private sector actors. These are encouraging data that give us the impetus to get as close as possible this 2023 to equaling the tourism indicators that the country had before the pandemic. We have our sights set on the growth of visitation, but also of foreign exchange, of the quality of life in our tourist communities, of the quality of service, and we do it in communion with the sustainability for which we are recognized worldwide,” said William Rodríguez, Minister of Tourism.
The United States is Costa Rica’s main tourist market, with 1,252,469 tourists entering by air, close to 98% of the number that visited us in 2019. All the North American airlines that operated in Costa Rica before the pandemic returned, and added more flights to their pre-pandemic schedules.
Another striking fact is that the Canadian market (171,033 tourists), increased in 2022 by 121,116 tourists compared to 2021.
From Europe, 410,832 tourists arrived by air, equivalent to 93% of pre-pandemic travelers, the United Kingdome heading the list with 70,425 tourists, followed by Germany with 66,716, France with 59,504, Spain with 53,217 and the Netherlands with 28,693 tourists.
The three months of the year 2022 with the highest influx of tourists by all routes were December, March, and July.
The Juan Santamaría (San Jose) International Airport received 1,455,928 tourists, recovering 80% of the travelers of 2019, while the Guanacaste Airport accounted for 661,579 tourists, exceeding the figures of 2019 when it registered the arrival of 599,433 people.
Other positive data
The departures of Costa Ricans abroad showed recovery levels: 934,320 Costa Ricans traveled during the previous year, which represents 82% of the figures registered in 2019.
The destinations chosen by region were Central America, North America and Europe.
