Costa Rica Positions Itself as the Fourth Nation with the Best Country Brand in the American Continent

Costa Rica consolidated its position as one of the best countries in the region, ranking fourth in the annual Country Brand-Tourism Edition ranking, prepared by Bloom Consulting. For the first time, the country surpassed Brazil in a list led in the Americas by the United States, Mexico, and Canada in the first 3 places, respectively.

This study comprehensively analyzes the brand performance of nearly 200 countries and territories around the world. Its methodology consists of four comprehensive variables: economic performance, digital demand, Country Brand strategy – CBS Rating, and online performance.

“The Costa Rica of wildlife wonders improved both its performance on social media and online. Strong digital demand from tourists in the United States has been key to achieving this success. By betting on sustainability as the engine of its economy, Costa Rica consolidates itself as an example for other countries that opt ​​for the same strategy”, pointed out the Bloom Consulting study.

The relative advantage that the country enjoys at the moment is based on the differentiation and valuation of our country as an option for travel, which is the product in the first instance of promotion and marketing actions, within a planned and uninterrupted process of many years, which has required financial and human resources.

“In an industry as competitive as tourism, which is also very heterogeneous, marketing, advertising and public relations actions definitely contribute to positioning the destination in the minds of the best prospects or tourists with a high interest in visiting us from our priority markets”, said Carolina Trejos, Marketing Director of the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism.

This position has also been achieved by the country strategy that has been consistent, congruent and visibly welcomed by the subsectors of tourism, investment, trade and foreign relations, with a country message for all; everyone working from their area.

Compared to other economic activities, the weight of tourism is up to 4 percentage points higher than service activities such as computing and up to 5 percentage points higher than banana cultivation, which contributes 1.1% to the country’s economy.

Trejos added that the “joint work that we carry out from the ICT, marketing the destination, reinforcing the positioning of the country brand and being a promotion platform for private sector companies that decide to attend, for example, international fairs and events that organize, is rewarded with this recognition. She also shows the resilience of Costa Rica and that behind tourism there is a trail that benefits everyone; we are a small country with a big vision”.

The spokeswoman concluded by stating that surpassing Brazil in this ranking in a year of recovery is very positive, it shows the efforts made by the country and how tourism has done an excellent job in image, product and sustainability, benefits that are expanding to the investment, trade and diplomatic sectors.

“Nine years after its creation, Esencial Costa Rica has better understood the digital ecosystem, generating valuable information that can be used by other media for a digital consumer that is evolving and demands reliable and relevant information for their decision making”, added Daniel Valverde. , Director of Communication, Marketing and Country Brand, of PROCOMER.

Valverde added that “the good performance of Essential Costa Rica also has a positive impact on the commerce sector, where in the same ranking in its Commerce edition, Costa Rica has been rising, entering the Top 10 of the Continent”.

How is the ranking done?

Bloom Consulting annually publishes the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking in two separate versions: Tourism and Trade. The main objective of the rankings of the Country Brand Tourism Edition and Commercial Edition classification for the years 2022-2023 is to measure the impact that perceptions and international reputation can have over time on each country brand.

The ranking determines the position that a country has according to its economic performance based on previous economic history and is a picture of the efforts made by each country. The ranking uses dozens of variables to rank countries by facts and mathematical algorithms rather than pure opinion, as other country brand rankings do. The methodology measures the consistency between a country’s external messages and its actual economic performance.

The higher a country is on the list, the better it compares with its competitors in positioning itself to attract foreign direct investment or tourists.

The country brand is a term or concept used in marketing and communication to refer to the intangible value of the reputation and brand image of a country through multiple aspects, such as its products, whether tourism, culture, sports, companies and/or public bodies, which determine the values ​​associated with that nation. A good country brand is an added value for the products from that territory, as well as for tourism, the attraction of foreign capital, the recruitment of labor and its political and cultural influence in the world.

Creation of the Essential Costa Rica Country Brand

The Government of Costa Rica, through Executive Decree No. 37669, of March 22nd, 2013, signed by the former President of the Republic Laura Chinchilla Miranda and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, together with other institutions, established a regulation that created and organized a national committee for the elaboration of a country brand based on previous experiences related to the “Costa Rica, without Artificial Ingredients” campaign, regulated the use of the Costa Rica Country Brand and declared of public interest everything related to this process.

This process was delegated to other institutions and finally the “Essential Costa Rica” Country Brand was launched in September 2013, after a four-year process in which the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Promoter Foreign Trade and CINDE.

Some recognitions obtained by the Costa Rica Essential Country Brand are:

2019 – Country Brand of the Year Winner, City Nation Place, United Kingdom.
2019 – Incorporation into the ITC Sustainability Map, Switzerland.
2020 – Branding Strategy Winner, Place Marketing Forum, France.
2020 – Success story at Nordic Place Branding Forum, Finland.
2020 – Presidency of the Ibero-American Council of Country Brands.
2021 – Literature success story: Nation Branding, Keith Dinnie, Nation Brand Builders, José Filipe Torres.
2022 – Success story in Image of Chile Business Forum.