Orignal: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_06/060210.htm#story3
By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | awilliams@ticotimes.net
Costa Rican tourism in 2010 is flying high, according to a report released by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) on Tuesday. The study claims that the number of tourists entering the country via its international airports increased 10.6 percent through the first four months of 2010, in comparison to the same period in 2009. The months of December through April are considered to be the country's tourism high season.
According to the ICT, During the first four months of the year, 546,474 tourists flew into Costa Rica, up 52,419 visitors from the first four months in 2009. The increased number of tourists is hovering close to the same mark seen during the first four months of 2008 (559,039), which was the best year in history for the in Costa Rican tourism industry. Nearly 2.1 million people visited the country in the course of that year.
“The principal reason for the improvement has been that the level of income for tourists has gotten back on track,” said Juan Carlos Ramos, the president of the National Tourism Chamber (Canatur). “The numbers are up from the first four months of the year compared to last year, and although they are still a little below the number from 2008, improvement has been steady thus far this year.”
The number of tourists entering Costa Rica through the Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela, west of San José, has increased by 7.8 percent. At the country's other major airport, the Daniel Oduber Airport in Liberia in the northwest province of Guanacaste. According to the ICT, the annual increase in tourists continues to boost airport revenue, which is reported to be up 3.63 percent since its 2008 high-water mark.
Some of the improvement in tourism figures at Costa Rican airports can be attributed to new offerings of direct flights into San José. In March, Aeromexico opened a route to San José from Mexico City. The new route also creates a quicker passage from San José to Asian countries, as Aeromexico also flies to Shanghai and Tokyo. In April, American Airlines began offering a direct flight from San José to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“The promotion of new airline carriers and routes will be an important push during this administration,” Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides told The Tico Times in April (TT, May 14). “It will be important to try to establish new routes to new markets, and one we consider to be very important is South America. We also would like to promote a larger amount of destinations for tourists from the U.S. and Canada. In addition to that, we would like to try to establish more direct flights from Costa Rica to Europe. Currently, the only direct flight to Europe is from San José to Madrid, Spain, on Iberia Airlines. We think we can possibly open more direct flights if we improve our relationships with European countries.”