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

By: Karen M. Mata

Karen M. Mata — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:21:00 +0000

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$.

By: Ken Morris

Ken Morris — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 01:53:00 +0000

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.

By: Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 17:24:00 +0000

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.