QCOSTARICA – A total of 21,969 tourists from European countries have visited Costa Rica during August, marking the highest number of European arrivals recorded so far in 2021.
Such figures were confirmed by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) – Costa Rica’s tourism board – on Friday, while the same report indicated that the numbers represent about 60% of travelers from European countries registered during the same month of 2019, before the Coronavirus outbreak, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The same source shows that during August, a total of 114,227 people entered by air in Costa Rica, marking 66% of the figures recorded during the same month in 2019, before the spread of the Coronavirus.
“Despite the travel restrictions established by the European Union for its citizens, these figures are encouraging for the gradual recovery of the Costa Rican tourism sector and generate positivism for the end of the year and the beginning of the high season. It also commits us to be vigilant in the application of sanitary protocols,” the Minister of Tourism, Gustavo Segura, pointed out.
According to the data provided by ICT, Costa Rica welcomed the highest number of international arrivals from the following main European markets during August:
- 8,790 tourists from Spain
- 2,626 from Germany
- 2,601 from France
- 1,115 from Switzerland
- 660 from the Netherlands
- 711 from the United Kingdom
Costa Rica’s main international airport, the Juan Santamaría International or San Jose Airport, (SJO) saw a total of 81,231 people enter the country last month, while 32,996 travelers entered the country by way of the Guanacaste Airport (LIR), located in Liberia, Guanacaste.
Read more: LIR gets a new name, “Guanacaste Airport”
During August, Costa Rica welcomed 75,407 visitors from the United States.
“These figures put Costa Rica on the road to recovery (…); so far this year, we have reached 793,391 tourists by all routes, and 758,591 arrived by air. We continue on that line of gradual recovery and with the Very important call to continue respecting protocols and inviting tourists to apply measures to avoid contagion,” Segura pointed out.
No numbers were available of Canadian arrivals, given that country recently relaxed travel measures for Canadians, and flights from Canada have yet to resume.
Costa Rica’s travel and tourism sector has started to recover from the damages caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.
European countries’ main markets have also started to open their doors to many tourists from other countries, which also helped this sector recover from the devastating situation provoked by the virus.
Last year, the travel and tourism sector in Europe suffered a 51.4% decrease, marking the most profound economic collapse, based on the figures published by the Economic Trends Report of the World Travel and Tourism Council. The Council’s report stressed the decrease mainly resulted from travel bans and restrictions imposed to halt the further spread of the virus.
