QCOSTARICA – In Costa Rica, tourism is directly or indirectly related to all economic activities in the country, which makes it the most strategic activity for the reactivation and growth of the national economy.
It is for this reason that the group of businessmen of ‘Turismo Por Costa Rica’, calls on the government and all public institutions such as local governments to manage once and for all a National Tourism Policy (Politica Nacional De Turismo).
This would oblige all these governmental and dependent entities to include the country’s priorities in tourism within their strategic planning and their actions, rendering accounts annually on the advances in this sector.
“Tourism is the largest generator of foreign currency in the country, it is distributed in all social strata and throughout the national geography, with special attention to rural and coastal areas, which have been abandoned or unprotected,” says Bary Roberts, representative of the business group.
Added to this statement is the fact that tourism is the largest employer since at its peak in 2019 tourism had more than 250,000 direct jobs and 750,000 indirect jobs, that is, one million families lived with income from tourism. Furthermore, more than 50% of these jobs were held by women.
Bary Roberts also points out that “almost 90% of all tourism companies are Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – PYMES in Spanish, which has a huge impact on the socioeconomic well-being of all the communities where this activity takes place.”
In fact, it can be said that these SMEs are the main manifestation of our PURA VIDA way of life, which together with our nature are the main attractions for tourists to visit us, especially in this post-pandemic time.
With these data we verify that tourism is related from any field to the daily life of Costa Ricans, both in the public and private sectors. It is for this reason that Turismo Por Costa Rica (Tourism for Costa Rica) wishes to call the attention of all government leaders so that they understand the magnitude and breadth of this valuable activity, since tourism is not being taken into account in State strategies and on many occasions they make decisions that rather prevent and delay the development of tourism, reads the group’s statement.
This is not the first time that private groups and enterprises have called on the government of the day to include tourism as a priority in their strategic planning.
