According to a survey by the Costa Rican Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR), the Costa Rica tourism sector will end the year with about 4% growth over the past year, according to estimates released by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT). This number is strictly based on hotel occupancy. Costa Rica hotel occupancy rates for the Christmas and New Year holidays have grown by 4.3% compared to 2013, while the tourism sector as a whole experienced a growth of 4.1% between January and November of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013, according to the ICT.
Costa Rica’s resort and hotel occupancy for the last two weeks of the current year is expected to be 88%. This rate consists of 60% domestic tourists and the additional 40% of bookings are for guests from abroad.
Tourism in Costa Rica Continues to Thrive
The booming Costa Rica tourism industry has continued to grow and thrive over the past decade. Though the 4% growth rate is lower than CANATUR had hoped for, it still shows positive strides in the country’s efforts to grow tourism leading to positive impacts on the economy as a whole.
Last year, in 2013, ICT reported 2.4 million visitors traveling to Costa Rica, a 3.6% increase over 2012. The tourism sector in 2013 provided Costa Rica with over $2.4 billion in revenue.