Costa Rica will host the 30th anniversary of its exposition on tourism – Expotur 2014 — in mid-May, with a focus on extreme sports, adventure tours and visitors from emerging markets such as Russia and China.
The Tico Times is the official news outlet for the event.
The country’s tourism minister, Allan Flores, made the announcement about the May 14-16 expo alongside the heads of the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals, or ACOPROT, at a press conference last Wednesday.
The expo will allow invitees from 37 countries to speak directly with 290 Costa Rican tourism businesses that plan to attend the conference. The event will be held at the Wyndham San José Herradura Hotel & Convention Center, 5 kilometers south of the Juan Santamaría International Airport, outside the capital.
“Expotur continues being an effective business network, which allows national businesses to put their products before a great quantity of large tour groups from all over the world,” Flores said at the press conference.
The minister went on to say that this year is especially exciting as the small Central American country looks to expand its notoriety to Russia, whose citizens now have no visa requirement, and the emerging market of Chinese tourists. Flores added that Costa Rica will continue to strengthen bonds with visitors from the United States, Canada, France and Germany.
ACOPROT President Yadyra Simón said tourists from all over the world are still enchanted with Costa Rica despite the notorious instability in Central America. She said Costa Rica has the second highest level of tourism in Latin America after Mexico, with tourists spending up to $94 million per year here. Simón credited Expotur’s long tenure for part of this success.
“Today, three decades later, we continue to reap the fruits of this magnificent initiative that undoubtedly, marked a before and after in the form of marketing the product of Costa Rican tourism,” Simón said.
Speaking before large photos of bungee jumpers and a kayaker, ACOPROT Director José Llaguno talked about focusing on a specific brand of tourism, playing off the country’s renowned natural wealth.
“This year we are emphasizing adventure tourism, the same as permitted the previous development of niches such as eco-tourism and rural community tourism,” Llaguno said.
A preliminary schedule for the May Expotur conference can be found here.
