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International arrivals grew 7.8% in the first two months of the year

 

  • Air arrivals figure confirms robust peak season, with the highest number of arrivals for these months in the last six years.

The 499,693 international air arrivals in January and February confirmed a strong peak season, with a 7.8% increase in arrivals over the same months in 2018. The January and February 2019 figures are the largest over this period in the last six years.

January 2019 saw 248,754 international arrivals to Costa Rica at both international airports, Juan Santamaría and Daniel Oduber. This amount represents a 9.2% increase over January 2018, when 227,694 arrivals were recorded.

The following month saw a 6.4% increase in arrivals by air, with 250,939 arrivals, which is 15,109 more than in February 2018.

“The international air arrival statistics are vitally important for the country, since we base our promotion of the destination abroad on these figures”, declared Maria Amalia Revelo, the Minister of Tourism.

The Tourism Minister noted that one month ago, at the world’s largest tourism trade fair, ITB Berlin, the airlines that connect Europe with Costa Rica—seven of which operate direct flights—informed the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) that they have been delighted by the results obtained over the last few months from their operations in our country. They also indicated their surprise at the reception that the destination has received in the markets that serve it.

“This growing connectivity with Europe increases our ability to attract better prospects from the continent”, Revelo noted.

Although Costa Rica only had a single indirect flight to Europe in 2006, eight airlines offer flights between Europe and Costa Rica, seven of which are direct and one with a stopover, which “goes to show the major leap our country has made as a result of our airline attraction strategy”, said the Minister of Tourism.

The ICT’s international arrival statistics are based on data provided by the Office of the Director-General of Immigration and Foreign Nationals (DGME).

New indicator

As announced by ICT last February, the Board will design a new indicator to measure the arrival of tourists to the country as part of their efforts to continuously improve and use innovative statistics. To this end, ICT signed a cooperation agreement with the DGME which will allow it to receive monthly data with a high level of disaggregation on international movements by visitors to Costa Rica.

The new indicator is consistent with statistical innovation efforts promoted by the ICT, which have included its presentation of the Tourism Satellite Account and the Product Input Matrix, indicators prepared with support from the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) that it unveiled in October 2018. These indicators show that the contribution of the tourism industry to the country’s GDP increased from 4.4% in 2012 to 6.3% in 2016. This figure increases to 8.2% of GDP if indirect contributions are added to direct ones.

The Minister of Tourism has sought technical assistance from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to advise the ICT’s Information Administration Unit, made up of tourism and statistics professionals. This assistance is aimed at jointly forming concrete proposals to identify the kinds of new indicators that can be used to measure the country’s tourism activity on the demand side.