Costa Rica tourist destinations featured in China

Costa Rica will participate for the first time in a tourism fair in China on Tuesday with a stand at the “China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market Beijing 2013,” the Tourism Ministry reported.

The fair runs through Thursday and aims to raise awareness of the country’s destinations among Chinese travelers and tour operators, government officials, airlines, hotels, and cruise and adventure travel companies, among others, the ministry said in a press release.

Costa Rica’s stand will include information on 10 hotels and tour operators.

Ministry officials said they hope to meet with major travel agents in the Chinese market, and they also intend to “measure market trends and provide detailed information on the country’s destinations to all participants.”

The stand mostly will exhibit photographs of the country’s natural attractions, but also will include a sample of local culture.

Chinese tourists represent an untapped opportunity for the Costa Rican tourism sector, as data from the World Tourism Organization show that 1.1 million Chinese visited the United States in 2011, another 243,000 visited Canada and just 10,605 traveled that year to Central America – Costa Rica and Honduras being the most popular destinations.