The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) and Correos de Costa Rica signed a cooperation agreement to benefit the work and marketing of products made by Costa Rican artisans from the Crafts with Identity Program.
The agreement seeks to formalize a general framework of collaboration between the entities within which activities can be developed and undertaken that promote economic recovery, digitalization and the commercialization of products of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (Mipymes) related to tourism.
The program promotes the development of a platform for the commercialization and delivery of products and tools to facilitate digital collections, training, promotion of the product offer as a contribution to business strengthening and the reactivation of their businesses, to facilitate purchases and payments safe for tourists. This pilot plan incorporates the 14 Craft Collectives that make up more than 250 MSMEs, organized in the Crafts with Identity program.
The initiative will have two phases:
The first will focus on digitization, economic recovery and market momentum, it will be based on actions related to the generation of information; It will be executed through two channels: online sales and local sales.
The second phase will be to give access to credit, through third parties, achieving with it an inclusive economic activation.
Improving the quality of life
The Minister of Tourism, William Rodríguez, explained that this program will improve the quality of life of the country’s artisans, allowing them to reactivate their economy, diversify their business vision, sell and send their crafts to any part of the world and that tourists acquire a product that symbolizes Costa Rican culture.
“The initial support for MSMEs in general and, in this case, for crafts in commercial, promotional, financial and business assistance, is essential not only to improve the competitiveness of companies but also to generate an increasingly better experience. quality for our tourists, who will be able to acquire quality artisan products, with identity and produced by the hands, hearts and minds of our beloved artisans, strengthened and empowered with this type of initiative,” said the minister.
For his part, the general manager of Correos de Costa Rica, Mauricio Rojas, highlighted that through digital logistics and delivery solutions, craft SMEs can find a key ally for the reactivation of the tourism sector, expanding their marketing possibilities. to new horizons, both in the national territory and in the world.
The agreement includes collaboration in different areas such as the development of market intelligence to understand the behavior of tourists, purchase preferences and price sensitivity.
The creation of an electronic commerce portal with the objective of enabling the online sale of products and services of tourism MSMEs and enabling logistics channels for the delivery of merchandise in the national territory and abroad.
The digitization of the payment ecosystem in tourist visitation locations with the purpose that tourism MSMEs can accept payments through digital means to improve the efficiency and capabilities of the sales process.
Marketing and promotion campaigns with the purpose of making tourists aware of the products and services offered by tourism MSMEs and connecting local supply with demand from the arrival of visitors at the airport to the places of tourist visit.
Training programs in financial education, entrepreneurship and electronic commerce with the aim of promoting the development of capacities so that tourism MSMEs can perform in digital commerce successfully and sustainably in the long term.
The development of digital applications (web-app) with the purpose that tourists can access the offer of products and services of tourism MSMEs from their mobile devices, improving the shopping experience and consequently increasing the consumption they make during their trip.
And finally, the programs to facilitate access to credit for tourism MSMEs, enabling the creation of a credit record under non-traditional standards based on the commercial activity registered in the electronic commerce portal.
