English
Central bank: $ 1,242 million in first three months of the year.
Businessmen and minister blames it on as many flights arriving
Airport bottleneck is to keep growing, according to specialist
Who visited the country in the first three months of the year left $ 1,242 billion, the highest amount recorded by the Central Bank in a series of uniform since 2000.
This amount is similar to that Costa Rica received throughout the year in the periods 2000 and 2001.
One of the characteristics of these resources is that they are quite scattered in the country because travelers usually visit several places, said Tourism Minister, Mauricio Ventura,
This money is recorded in the account "exports trips" that the Central Bank considers the quarterly balance of payments.
In the first holiday, which is the bulk of this category, but also participation in recreational and cultural activities, visiting family and friends, pilgrimage or study reasons and health they are included.
The business, meanwhile, include the crews of means of transport, calling or are passing; government officials on official travel, and officials of international organizations on official business.
Also people traveling on behalf of their companies (except diplomatic staff), self-employed non-residents who come on business, and frontier workers, seasonal and other temporary employees who are not residents of the economy that employs .
According to a breakdown provided by the Central Bank, the total foreign exchange earnings from travel in 2015, 77% were for personal and 13% for business.
More Flights leave off. The Ventura Minister and President of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), Pablo Heriberto Abarca, identified as main causes increase in the number of flights to the country.
"Clearly, there is growth. This increase coincides with increased visitation, or income for tourists on the airways, which means that the strategy, which constantly have the public and private sector in attracting airlines, has been successful and is bearing fruit " said Abarca.
"If one were to point out the most important reason, which is not only because there is a set of things always around this, possibly the most important is the arrival of new airlines," said Ventura.
The official said that redoubled efforts to increase connectivity of Costa Rica with the world.
According to information provided by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), in 2015, five new airlines began flights to Costa Rica: Southwest Airlines, Volaris, Alaska Airlines, British Airways and Thomson Tui.
In addition, six established nine new routes (JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, Avianca, XTRAirways- Apple Vacations, WestJet and United Airlines) and six increased their flight frequencies (United Airlines, Condor, Interjet, JetBlue, Sun Country Airlines and United Airlines) .
This year, three companies announced new direct flights to the country: British Airways in April launched a direct flight between London and San Jose; Air France will from next November between Paris and San Jose, and -the leading airline Edelweiss holiday in Switzerland- will offer in 2017, flights between Zurich and San Jose.
In addition, four companies announced four new routes (XTRAirways-Apple Vacations, Southwest Airlines, Air Canada and Condor) and three increased their frequencies travel (JetBlue, Volaris and Air Canada).
In medical tourism, Jorge Cortes, president of Promed (promoting medical tourism to our country), explained that the biggest growth is in the dental part.
"Overall demand for medical tourism has remained stable as far as the medical side is concerned, not on the part of cosmetic dentistry, which itself has had a significant increase, basically because they are reconstructive procedures that are not covered by usually by insurance, "he explained.
¿Dollar has not affected? This growth has occurred despite the fact that the country is expensive, as recognized Ventura and Canatur, and that employers have claimed that the stable price of the dollar makes Costa Rica even more expensive compared to other destinations.
According Abarca, the country has been successful in its strategy and focus on a segment that can afford high costs. However, he believes that the state should work more on how to lower them.
"The issue of the exchange rate, we have focused from the point of view of opportunity to generate more employment and that the Central Bank do not reach to influence stability when external factors are not giving that stability" Abarca said.
