Subscribe via E-Mail

Get all of our news delivered fresh to your inbox every morning! Just tell us your name and where to send it using the form below.

PS – We hate spam too. We don’t sell or share our list with anyone, and we never send commercial email.




luxe
Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

Costa Rica continues to lead regional tourism; Panama shows strong growth

Email this page

baby boomers on beach

September 2nd, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) Costa Rica continues to lead the region in tourist arrivals, although Panama showed strong growth in its tourism sector between 2010 and 2011.

 

Figures from every country in the region show that tourism is an important part of their economies.

 

In 2012, Costa Rica attracted 2.34 million tourists, not counting what the Central American Tourism Council calls excursionistas, which are visitors who do not spend at least one night in the country.

 

While the rest of the countries in the region include excursionistas in their figures, Costa Rica continues to lead the region in tourist arrivals, including those of Panama, which attracted 2.08 million visitors in 2012.

 

Third-place Honduras has not finished tabulating its 2012 figures, but attracted 1.85 million visitors in 2011, compared to Costa Rica’s 2.19 million the same year.

 

In 2011, the number of international arrivals to Costa Rica accounted for 21% of the isthmus (including Panama and Belize), according to the Central American Tourism Council.  Panama came in second, accounting for 16.6% of all arrivals.

 

Isabel Vargias, the president of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), said during a meeting of Central American tourism officials that the region should not compete with one another, but instead with destinations such as Mexico and Australia, adding that Costa Rica’s Canatur is finalizing the details of an ambitious plan for the country’s tourism sector for the next 10 years.

costa rica news

ATTENTION: If you are seeing this message,


Advertisement


Get our news delivered fresh to your inbox every morning.

Click here to subscribe to our email list. We hate spam too and never send commercial email.

Like us on Facebook and receive our news in your timeline

  • Oliver Wendell Holmes

    I understand those tourism numbers don’t take into account the 1,000,000 or so entries of migrant workers transiting from Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

  • Ken Morris

    Well, it’s probably not a million migrant workers as Justice Holmes says, but there are perhaps a couple hundred thousand Nicas crossing a couple times a year, plus perhaps 10,000 – 30,000 North American perpetual tourists making their four annual visa runs. By the numbers, it looks like Panama is in the lead for genuine tourism, though their numbers probably include a lot of cruise ships letting out their herd for for only an afternoon or so, plus more businesspeople. The really puzzling number to me is Honduras. No tourists go there. Whatever the truth, a sentient person gets tired of these misleading numbers. Nobody is stupid enough to believe these raw numbers (and anyone in the tourism industry would go broke making business decisions based upon them), so why are they constantly presented? It’s insulting, frankly.

  • Karen M. Mata

    Apparently it’s booming everywhere except Coco. Check the local realtors as there are hundreds of listings, many very reasonable.

    A tripadvisor poster recently dined at a spot there and complained that 2 shrimp plates without alcohol ran 80$.

Popular Content