THE Costa Rican Tourism Institute(ICT) has a new home. Last weekend,ICT began moving into its new offices inthe former Costa Rican Investment Board(CINDE) building in La Uruca, near theHotel Irazú on the highway between SanJosé and Juan Santamaría InternationalAirport.During the next 20 years, ICT will pay$2.5 million (¢985 million) for its newoffices. This works out to a monthly rentof $19,600 – significantly less than the$24,027 a month ICT currently pays theSocial Security System (Caja) to rent fourfloors of its annex building in downtownSan José.ICT’s purchase has received approvalfrom the Planning Ministry (MIDEPLAN)and the Central Bank.The new building has 5,272 squaremeters of office area, compared to the2,850 square meters available at ICT’soffices at the Caja. The building has threefloors and 1,788 square meters of parkingspace, most of it underground.The additional space will make it possibleto incorporate ICT dependencies thatwere located away from its main offices,including the Inter-InstitutionalCommission of Marinas and TouristDocks (CIMAT) and the offices in chargeof the Papagayo Peninsula’s TourismDevelopment Hub, Natural Resources andAssistance for Small Tourism Companies.The new building will also house classrooms,ICT’s tourism training programs,an auditorium and a customer serviceoffice for tourism business operators.“The institute will not close its doorsto the public at any moment because themoving will take place during the weekends,”according to ICT General ManagerGuillermo Alvarado.The tourism institute’s new phonenumber is 299-5800.CINDE moved last month to PlazaRoble office center in the western SanJosé suburb of Escazú.CINDE’s smaller, more modern installationsbetter serve its purpose, accordingto the board. The former building wasacquired more than 10 years ago whenCINDE had 340 employees. Today itemploys only 30.
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