Tourist Number 2.000.000
Expected in December
The first week in
December is when tourist
number 2.000.000 will
arrive, marking an
historic moment for the
country. To mark the
event, the Instituto
Costarricense de Turismo
(ICT) is preparing a
reception party worthy
of a hero.
The announcement was
made by Allan Flores,
manager of the ICT,
during the inauguration
of a new Sansa service
in Liberia.
"We are preparing an
enormous reception, one
filled with many
surprises", said Flores.
Tourist 2 million will
have, among other
goodies, free hotel
accommodations, free
tours of the country and
will always be welcome
to Costa Rica, explained
Flores.
The ICT official
explained that,
according to their
calculations, the first
week in December is when
tourist 2.000.000 is
expected to cross the
immigration lines at the
Juan Santamaría airport.
In 1999, Costa Rica
broke the one million
tourist barrier.
Flores added that the
projection for increase
visitors this season
over last has been
reduced to between 6%
and 9% when only a
couple of months ago the
projection was 15%.
The financial crisis
around the world is
being blamed for the
drop. The World Tourism
Organization (WTO) has
also revised its
projections from 6% to
2%.
Flores said that Costa
Rica will see, at
minimum, three times
more tourists than the
rest of the world based
on the WTO projections.
In 2007, Costa Rica
received 1.9 million
tourists, a growth of
11.7% over 2006.
Tourism in Costa Rica
depends generally on the
economic well being of
the United States. In
2007, figures show that
40% of all tourists came
from the U.S. |
