The effects of the worldwide economic crisis continue to be felt in Costa Rica’s tourism industry.  However, perhaps nowhere is the degree of impact more severe than in San Carlos, especially places like La Fortuna, where virtually everyone is involved to some extent in the tourism trade.  The numbers are in and reflect a decrease that is perhaps less than many feared.  In 2008, Costa Rica had 2.1 million tourism arrivals.  Last year that number fell by about 10.5% to 1.9 million.  Yes it could have been worst, but in places like La Fortuna, where in the last few years new hotels have been popping up everywhere, the decrease is much more severe.  Even this year hotel occupancies are down by 40 to 50% in many places and there is fear that this year’s low season, which starts in May, will be even worst than last years.  Many hotels are simply unable to pay their bills and debt service, and with banks clamping down, some have sought protection under the law, a law similar to the bankruptcy code in the U.S., but not nearly as forgiving.  Simply stated, hotels going out of business present a grave threat to the entire region due to unemployment and societal problems it engenders.  That is why hoteliers like Leovigildo Villegas, of the Hotel Montaña de Fuego, are urging them to unite to combat the crisis.  At Package Costa Rica, we are also “feeling it,” but with very low overhead, not as severe as many others.   We hope that predictions of a dire low season turn out to be false alarms.  Costa Rica still has the same appeal as before the crisis, we just need people to loosen their wallets a bit and stop putting off those vacations!

Link to Article in La Nación

Tags: 2010 tourism in Costa Rica

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Costa Rica Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.