"Many potential tourists either were too scared to travel last year or didn’t have the money to go anywhere..
Even the region’s most established tourism market, Costa Rica, reported an 8 percent drop in visitors last year, following years of continuous and steady growth that appeared to be an irreversible trend.
A year later, the conditions are improving. While U.S. economists debate whether the recession is over or on the verge of a double dip, the early returns on Central America’s 2010 tourism numbers show that recovery here is clearly under way.
“Indicators show a definite recovery after the world economic crisis,” Costa Rican Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides said in a July press release.
Costa Rica registered a 9.6 percent increase in tourism arrivals in the first half of the year.
The rebound, Benavides noted, has been better than many experts predicted. Costa Rica’s tourism recovery is two to three times stronger than the forecasts from both the World Tourism Organization and Costa Rica’s National Tourism Chamber, which predicted a more modest 3 to 5 percent growth this year.
Benavides said Costa Rica expects to climb back above the 2 million annual visitor mark by the end of 2010, after slipping below that plateau last year. By 2014, Costa Rica hopes to attract 2.5 million tourists a year."
Complete article here:
The Tico Times
