World Cup Official Channel to Show Costa Rica Ad at Opening Game
German television channel ZDF, the official World Cup channel, will show a 30 second television ad describing Costa Rica's tourist attractions, before and after the opening World Cup match, Costa Rica's tourism minister told media on Friday.

The minister, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, described the fact that Costa Rica will play the World Cup's first game, against hosts Germany in Munich on June 9, as a "historic and unique" moment for the Central American country.

"It gives us the opportunity to present ourselves to the world and be noticed," he said.

The advert, with the slogan "free of artificial ingredients" will be broadcast on several German television channels for two and a half weeks, he added, estimating that in Germany alone the World Cup opening audience could top 24 million.

In 2005, just over 28,000 German tourists visited Costa Rica, nearly 12 percent of all the European tourists visiting the country.

The advert is part of a major tourism promotion campaign run by the Costa Rican Tourism Agency, which is led by Benavides. The campaign costs 4.2 million U.S. dollars.

The agency has also paid for newspaper adverts showing children playing football on Costa Rica's beaches.

A three minute video showing the culture, nature, people and tourist attractions of Costa Rica will be played on giant screens in the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Hannover, Gunzberg, Heidelberg and Frankfurt, as well as on Germany television.

Tourism is Costa Rica's main industry. In 2005, more than 1.67 million tourists visited the country, generating 1.6 billion dollars in foreign exchange.

Costa Rica will play Germany, Ecuador and Poland as part of Group A in the competition.