The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – Some organizations in the U.S. and Canada are warning of assaults on tourists in Costa Rica, and these reports are affecting the Costa Rica tourism numbers already because there are agencies or groups are urging to go to other destinations. The National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) has the expectation that the situation will improve by the end of this year.
Figures from the Civil Aviation Directorate indicate that tourism grew moderately, to May this year compared to the same period last year. The total increase was 1.7% between the two periods.
The lowest growth was in the Daniel Oduber Airport in Liberia, which hardly showed an increase of 0.8%, while the International Airport Juan Santamaria record from January to May of 2013, against the same period in 2012 – an increase of 1 , 8%.
The President of CANATUR, Isabel Vargas, said the flight suspension line Avianca Taca could have influenced these numbers, but that the most important point of influence comes from the bad image of the country is being given in other markets, and isolated cases are “inflated”.
“There were warnings about theft problems tourists in Costa Rica, this creates an immediate reaction, even though we know that security is improving in the country,” said Vargas.
The expectation of tourism entrepreneurs is that there is a spike in activity with the arrival of new airlines and the efforts to reduce tariffs and improved promotions.
The leader of the Planning and Development for Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), Rodolfo Lizano, said both 2012 figures, as of this year showed positive growth denoting an increase in absolute terms.
“The difference of a specific month does not make a (fair) judgment or to signal a trend for this particular month. In order to assess trends, we have to wait to see the behavior of June and July because they are months with a significant level of tourism because of the summer in the U.S. and Europe, “said Lizano.
Hotel occupancy in May also had a slight decrease from the same period last year, according to the survey of the Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels was a 42.8%, and while in 2012 was 43.2%.
“In May the occupancy rate year showed a reduction of less importance than that observed in the previous two months, with a range of -0.4 percentage points to submit a monthly average of 42.8%,” according to the Department of Research of the Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels.
Guanacaste, the Central Valley and the Caribbean presented indicator year reductions varying the -1.9% occupancy., -2.3%. and -17.3%. The region was better occupation presented Puntarenas and Central Pacific with 48%, while the Caribbean recorded only 33% of rooms full. CRHOY
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
