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COSTA RICA |
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Costa Rica
Focusing On Eco-Tourism To
Weather The Economic Storm
By Juergen T. Steinmetz, eTN |
An interview with Costa Rica's ministro de
Turismo (Tourism Minister), Carlos Ricardo
Benavides, who says that tourism in Costa
Rica, like the rest of the world, has
dropped a little bit and still focusing on
the US market.
eTN: How is the current situation when it
comes to tourism in Costa Rica?
Carlos Ricardo Benavides: Like the rest of
the world, it has decreased a little bit,
because our main market is the United
States, and North America itself is almost
62 percent of our market, so when North
America comes down, our tourism also goes
down a lot. But we have maintained also a
very high-class tourism, the one that goes
for example to the Hyatt or to the Four
Seasons, that still comes, it doesn’t matter
what the crisis is at this point. We have
been in a small recuperation in August and
September, and we hope to maintain our
progress, and probably help us a little bit
with vacationers coming for December so we
can have maybe a negative loss for the whole
2009 around -6 or -7 percent; that is what
we are forecasting right now.
eTN: The air links from the United States,
they decreased or they stayed the same?
Benavides: Well, some of them decreased, but
not because of lack of people flying, but
for example, in the case of Delta, it was
because of the power of the fleet, and it
was not very fuel efficient itself, so long
trips, for example the ones from New York to
San Jose, over a 5-hour trip, were very
positive for them with all planes. Other
airlines have decreased the size of the
planes, trying to bring full planes and not
at all require planes from different parts.
But all of them are still flying. We have
not lost any kind of carrier. As a matter of
fact, we added two new carriers from the
United States. We added JetBlue that
initiated flights from Orlando direct to San
Jose, and we added Spirit Airlines who also
initiated flights from Ft. Lauderdale in the
United States, and last year we initiated
Frontier Airlines from Denver.
eTN: You mentioned 5-star tourism to Costa
Rica is a big issue. Did you see the prices
coming down for hotels?
Benavides: No, not much, not much. We have a
philosophy – when you make your product very
cheap, and people get accustomed to paying
$1 for something that you know that is worth
a hundred dollars, when you got back to
charge them the $100, they will turn to you
and say, but that was worth $1, and you will
tell them, no there was a crisis, I’m sorry.
If you will charge $1, it is probably
because it was worth $1 not $100.
eTN: I love this philosophy, but is it
realistic that the hotels follow your
philosophy?
Benavides: They didn’t go so low as to make
the destination extremely cheap. They went
down a little bit, but what we made was
another thing – we made special packages.
For example, if you stay 3 nights, we will
give you 2 nights free; if you stay 5
nights, we will give you a complimentary
night or a complimentary free meal at the
spa, and a complimentary tour. In other
words, what we wanted to add was not a
cheaper product, but add more product to
what you are paying. In that way, your
product will always have a normal price, but
people will feel that they are getting more
for what they are paying.
eTN: Besides North America, United States,
Canada, what other targets are there for
you?
Benavides: Our main targets are Spain,
Germany, France, England, and then regional
tourism from Central America, and United
States, Canada, and Mexico. I would say from
the big pie that would be like 75 percent of
the graphics.
eTN: A lot of destinations have told me they
see an enormous difference in the number of
stays between Europe and North America. Have
you experienced the same thing?
Benavides: Yes, because in all across the
chart, the expenditure has always come down,
so that means that the income from tourism
will also come down – it’s inevitable. But I
think we will recuperate that next year. I
think we are seeing that – the numbers
coming up.
eTN: What are your air links currently from
Germany? Are there charter flights or is it
based on commercial flights?
Benavides: We have Condor. Condor is making
two weekly flights, and we were trying to
make Lufthansa maybe try one flight directly
to San Jose, because most of the people have
to go to Madrid and get by way of Iberia or
go to the United States by way of
Continental and then come down. But the
market is there. We are very aggressive in
Germany; a lot of marketing going on in
Germany, a lot of cooperative campaigns
especially for tour operators like Tui, and
we are very, very, very strong in Germany.
It’s a good market for us.
eTN: Besides the classical idea, is there
any niche market people should know about in
Costa Rica?
Benavides: Especially, what we have promoted
always eco-tourism – beaches, volcanoes,
nature – that is our main goals. And I
always tell people, we are not perfect in
eco-tourism, but at least we give the fight.
So to keep eco-tourism as our main market,
we have 25 percent of our country protected.
We have 4.5 percent of all the bio-diversity
in the world are present in Costa Rica. So
we are protecting that part that is nature.
So, if you want to see nature, if you want
to see hotels contracted with nature in
mind, with a maximum high level, you go to
Costa Rica.
eTN: When you compare the GDP to tourism,
how important is tourism to Costa Rica?
Benavides: Excluding inter-continental,
because there is no way to measure
inter-continental, tourism is number one.
eTN: What does the government do? Yesterday,
we heard Geoffrey Lipman talking about the
Road of Recovery. Are these all interesting
developments for you to cooperate?
Benavides: Yes, but, what we have done
especially is to promote local tourism; try
to keep the tourism that we already have.
eTN: Our readers are travel industry
professionals – these are travel agent, tour
operators, PR agencies, journalists. Is
there anything you want them to know about
Costa Rica?
Benavides: When you get in Costa Rica, you
are getting a way of doing tourism, and in
the end you are betting for the future – for
your future and the future of your sons and
granddaughters and grandsons, because we are
trying to keep the message that you can do
tourism by respecting nature, and in the
future, if we don’t do that, then nothing
else will matter than what we have done with
nature. We know that in the future, as many
have said, the big fight will be for water
and for food, so when you get to come to our
country, we believe in this form of doing
things - that everything can be on a balance
with nature and with progress and with
tourism.
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