New Sign Campaign To Benefit Tourists

In an agreement many consider to be decades overdue, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) have launched a two-year program to add 1,300 new road signs to Route 32, between San José and the Caribbean port city of Limón, and along the Inter-American Highway, also known as Route 1, the country’s major north-south thoroughfare.

In a press conference last week, Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides said the new road sign program is absolutely essential to a country so dependent on tourism.

“No longer can we have tourists getting lost on their way to our beaches and our parks. People who visit this country must be able to get to their destinations safely, and on their own,” Benavides said.

The new signs, some which will be brown to help distinguish them from the often-outdated green signs now decorating the country’s highways, will serve as mileage markers and direct tourists to hotels, national parks, surf breaks and other attractions.

Other signs, in blue, will assist tourists in locating hospitals, airports, and ferry and bus terminals. According to Public Works and Transport Minister Karla González, the program is part of the Arias administration’s efforts to improve infrastructure for those visiting and investing in Costa Rica, and will include efforts to improve lane markings, road paving and bridge work.

“We will begin with signs on the major routes, and hope to expand this program to  other areas of the country,” González said.

She said the new signs should be ready for distribution later this year.