As of August 1st, tourists under 18 years of age, as well as adult visitors who have the complete vaccination scheme, will not have to comply with the requirement of having travel insurance that covers possible medical expenses generated by being infected with Covid- 19.
This was announced last week by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), which added that with this measure it seeks to accelerate the arrival of international tourists for the remainder of the year.
The provision came a few days after it emerged that, during the first half of this year, less than half a million travelers arrived in the country. Although the figures are higher than those of 2020, due to the Pandemic, these numbers are still far from those registered in 2019.
If it maintains the current monthly average, Costa Rica would be barely surpassing the million people who entered the national territory last year. That figure represented a year-on-year drop of more than 66%.
Who are exempted?
However, the Minister of Tourism Gustavo Segura recalled that only the following vaccines will be valid:
– AstraZeneca
– Johnson & Johnson
– Moderna
– Pfizer-BioNTech
As proof, vaccination certificates and vaccination cards that contain at least the following information will be accepted:
– Name of the person who received the vaccines
– Date of each dose
– Pharmaceutical company
– In the case of the USA, the “Covid-19 vaccination record card” will be received.
In addition, travelers must have received the immunization 14 days before entering the national territory.
Therefore, people with schedules that include doses such as Sputnik V (Russia) or Sinopharm (China) will have to continue buying the requested insurance.
At the same time, Segura recalled that all visitors must continue to fill out the form known as the digital form called the Health Pass. This, regardless of whether they need to have insurance or not.
According to estimates from the Tourism Institute (ICT), a maximum of 1.6 million visitors is expected this year.
