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Costa Rica encourages tourism investment and innovation at the Ibero-American Conference of Tourism Ministers and Business

 

  • The Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo gave a talk on opportunities for tourism investment and the challenges facing innovation in Costa Rica at the Ibero-American Conference of Tourism Ministers and Businesses.
  •  The twenty-second version of the Ibero-American conference was attended by the Ministers and Secretaries of Tourism from Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, and Venezuela.

The Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo, held a pair of talks at the XXII Ibero-American Conference of Tourism Ministers and Businesses (CIMET), an event held in the run-up to the official program of activities of Fitur 2019 in Madrid, Spain. Participants from Latin America, Spain and Portugal shared their advances and innovations in the tourism industry. They also discussed new trends in a highly connected world with variable costs, where there is an ever-growing need to foster unique, unforgettable experiences, comfort and high-quality services.

In her first appearance, the Minister spoke in front of an audience of over 300 people from a total of 16 countries in the Ibero-American region. She touched on the tourism investment opportunities that Costa Rica offers, with an emphasis on how small and medium tourism businesses are the backbone of the tourism development model.

In addition, she noted that Costa Rica surpassed 3 million international tourists with an increase of 5% in arrivals to the international airports of Juan Santamaría in San José and Daniel Oduber Quirós in Liberia. The tourism head mentioned the notable increase of tourists coming from Europe, with a historic figure of over 480,000 visitors. “These figures are a source of pride for us, because we have reached them steadily and we interpret them as a clear demonstration of our maturity and strength as a destination”, Revelo said.

The Minister mentioned other relevant issues relating to the improvement of investment conditions in Costa Rica, the importance of Spain as a trading partner, the development of tourism enterprises, promotion and marketing of Costa Rica in Europe and the increase of eight connecting flights from Europe as a key element of connectivity. She also underlined the importance of the country brand, Essential Costa Rica.

“Essential Costa Rica reflects the essence of what we are: a small country with a concentrated population full of people with talent, specializations, inventiveness, warmth, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. Our essence contains the great riches of our land: though it only represents 0.03% of the earth’s territory, it is home to around 5% of the biodiversity. With a population of 4.6 million people, it exports 4,500 different products to 146 countries”, she went on.

For additional context, the European Union, the third most important region for Costa Rica, represented 16.1% of the country’s total trade in 2017, with exports totaling $2.19 billion and imports of $1.60 billion.

New Challenges for Innovation

The second talk consisted of a panel relating to new challenges in the area of technology and information. In this session of CIMET, the Minister emphasized the impact of the Social Progress Index (IPS). “Using the IPS and with support of various universities, we have applied technology to measure the impact on well-being in various tourist zones of Costa Rica, taking the leap from economic measurements to social ones as well. She added that the innovative measuring tool allows the measurement of how higher quality of life can be achieved for the citizens of Costa Rica and for those of the region.

This year’s CIMET saw participation from tourism ministers, vice-ministers and secretaries from Spain, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, as well as the main representatives from the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Accommodations (CEHAT), the Spanish Tourism Council, the Spanish Institute of Tourism Quality and the Iberia airline. The presence of Jaime A. Cabal, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) was another noteworthy feature of the event.

The twenty-second CIMET was held in the IFEMA North Convention Center from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CET. The day’s events concluded with a working session between all of the participating ministers and businesspeople