“France Week in Costa Rica” is an initiative that seeks to generate exposure of Costa Rica as a destination, give visibility to gastronomy and create a presence on social networks of two well-known celebrities in the French market. The activities run from July 14th to 20th.
The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), the France-Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and the French Embassy join forces to enhance the image of Costa Rica in France and inspire them to choose our country as a destination for their next vacation.
From July 14th to 20th, the “France Week” is being held in Costa Rica, to celebrate the French national holiday of July 14th. Among the activities carried out by the France-Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) are tours on the influence of France in San José with Chepecletas, a night of French Cinema at the iconic Magaly Cinema, a conversation between international and Costa Rican chefs, and a little market of French products in the French Alliance.
Famous French chef
As part of the events, the ICT and the France-Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce and Industry brought Mohamed Cheikh, a famous French chef, to the country, who participates in different activities and creates content about his Costa Rican inspirations and will promote the destination in his networks social.
Mohamed Cheikh is a French chef of Algerian descent. He is the winner of the 12th season of Top Chef France, broadcast on M6 France and Belgium’s RTL TVI in 2021. Since then, he has opened his own restaurant in Paris and has acquired a large community of followers on social media.
This renowned Chef was selected for this campaign because he defends values similar to those of Costa Rica such as “Pura Vida”, acceptance and openness, he is the most recent winner of the program and also has a large community on his social networks. Chef Mohamed is discovering Costa Rica and participates in activities related to gastronomy, holding a series of meetings with Costa Rican chefs.
Film director Jérémy Banster
For his part, the famous French actor and film director Jérémy Banster, who has visited Costa Rica on several occasions, talks on his social networks about the images and natural scenes of the film inspired by our country “La Vie Pure”, which is screened during this week at the Cine Magaly.
Intertwining experiences in white, blue and red
Ireth Rodríguez, head of ICT Promotion commented that this project is an opportunity to share and publicize Costa Rican gastronomy and create inspiring content and thus inspire French people to come to Costa Rica. Gastronomy and good food are topics of great interest in the French market and play an important role in the development of tourist destinations worldwide. “Costa Rica is a country of flavors to discover, with a gastronomic offer by region, with great richness and diversity, which rescues native ingredients and reflects who we are.
The experience of visiting the country and sharing our gastronomy generates added value for our tourists, where the most valuable are the stories and the people behind each dish,” Rodríguez stressed.
Main areas
This activity is articulated in San José and the GAM, in addition to Guanacaste and part of Tamarindo, since they are the two areas with the most French speakers in Costa Rica.
Bringing both nations together
Cyril Bagues, director of the Franco-Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, commented that France Week in Costa Rica aims to get to know the destination better, in order to plan a stay in the country and bring both nations together. The mission of the CCI FRANCE COSTA RICA is to facilitate and develop commercial, industrial, financial and technological relations between these two regions.
“We seek to highlight the cultural and gastronomic aspects of the destination, highlight the relationship between the two countries, generating content around the themes of Costa Rican culture and gastronomy,” Bagues emphasized.
This project aims to reach a quality clientele aware of the values of Costa Rica and interested in nature, outdoor activities, adventure, culture and cuisine to discover, since the French are always looking for inspiration to choose their vacation destination.
Costa Rica is an interesting place for the French, and France is also one of the markets with the highest number of tourists from Europe. From January 2022 to date, 35,366 French people have entered by air. The French who visit Costa Rica do so mostly out of interest in observing flora and fauna, as well as hiking through nature trails and exploring the culture.
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