Costa Rica to promote adventure tourism at fairs in Los Angeles and Boston

The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) along with a group of private-sector companies will promote Costa Rica as a destination for adventure travel at two international fairs in the United States.

Hotels and car rental and travel agencies are among the companies that will offer services at the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show 2014 from Feb. 8-9.

According to the ICT, in 2013 some 28,000 people attended this event in California, a state that accounts for 12.9 percent of all U.S. middle- to high-income tourists who see Costa Rica as an ideal vacation destination.

Another group of companies will participate in the Boston Globe Travel Show 2014 organized by the U.S. newspaper on Feb. 7-8 at the Seaport World Trade Center.

This fair will bring together wholesalers, travel agencies, hotels, airlines, tour operators, tourism officials and others.

The U.S. remains Costa Rica’s largest source market of tourists, reporting 929,402 international arrivals in 2013, of which 870,620 arrived by air, according to the ICT.

Surveys conducted by that agency at Costa Rica’s two international airports indicate that adventure tours such as those offering zip-lining trips are some of the most coveted  activities for U.S. visitors.

In 2012, some 53 percent of U.S. tourist who arrived at Daniel Oduber International Airport in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, and 25.2 percent arriving at the Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela, outside the capital, booked zip-lining tours during their trips, the ICT reported.

That year, travel website TripAdvisor declared Costa Rica the “Most Popular Adventure Travel Destination,” the ICT reported.