Costa Rica will host the World Social Tourism Congress 2024, an event that analyzes the trends and challenges of the sector and promotes programs so that all people exercise the right to tourism, an official source reported this Thursday.
The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) explained that the designation of Costa Rica took place this Thursday in London within the framework of a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Social Tourism Organization (ISTO, for its acronym in English).
The universal right to do tourism
«We believe that ISTO has valued the efforts of Costa Rica for almost a decade understanding, applying and evolving the concepts of social tourism in an attempt to provide possibilities so that populations with economic and physical limitations can enjoy the right to do tourism, as well as in the successful organization that we had in 2019 of the Social Tourism Meeting of the Americas,” declared the general manager of the ICT, Alberto López, in a statement.
The World Congress of Social Tourism is held every two years and to date there have been twenty-eight editions, of which five have been held in America. The Costa Rica event will be the first to be organized in Central America.The last time this congress was held on the American continent was in Brazil in 2014.
The ICT detailed that at least 300 people from various parts of the world, as well as organizations and companies, are expected to attend the event in Costa Rica.The ISTO was founded in 1963, has a presence in 46 countries, has 179 associated tourism organizations and bases its work on the thematic axes of accessibility, fair trade, environment, solidarity and quality of life.
Promote the development of tourism for all
The objective of this organization is to promote the development of tourism for all, make vacation trips accessible to the greatest number of people, promote and support responsible, supportive tourism that is at the service of people, communities and of the territories.
Tourism is one of the main drivers of the economy of Costa Rica, a country of 5.1 million inhabitants that, before the covid-19 pandemic, received about 3 million tourists annually.
After a drop in numbers due to the pandemic, Costa Rica has been gradually recovering and hopes to close 2023 with visitation similar to what it recorded before the health crisis.
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