Costa Rica Tourism Soars: 14.5% Increase in First Half of 2024

The number of tourists visiting Costa Rica increased by 14.5% in the first half of this year, compared to the same period in 2023, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) reported this Friday. “From January to June of this year, 1,532,443 tourists visited Costa Rica entering by air, representing an increase of 14.5% compared to the same period in 2023,” the ICT indicated in a semi-annual report.

The Institute specified that 92% of visitors arrive in the country by air, mainly from the United States and Canada. “The outstanding results of the first semester of 2024 […] show a dynamic, growing, and solid tourism sector,” said Tourism Minister William Rodríguez when presenting the report.

The figures reflect that Costa Rica has already recovered from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 in the tourism sector, which contributes 8.2% of the national GDP and is one of the largest sources of foreign exchange. The ICT forecasts a record 2.8 million tourists by the end of this year compared to 2.4 million in 2023.

Three out of four tourists who visited Costa Rica came from North America, with the United States leading (61%), followed by Canada (10%) and Mexico (2.8%). From Europe, visitors mainly came from France (2.8%), Germany (2.6%), and the United Kingdom (2.5%).

Tourists from North America increased by 18% compared to the same period in 2023, according to official data. From Europe, visitors from France increased by 9.7%, from Germany by 3.4%, and from the United Kingdom by 5.5%.

Natural parks, flora and fauna, and beaches seem to be the main attractions for visiting Costa Rica. Ilse Klaver, 51, from the Netherlands, told AFP while visiting San José with her family that she hoped to “canoe, dive or zip-line through the forest,” as well as see “birds, turtles and small frogs.”

“As I love nature, we decided to come and see it with our own eyes,” Puerto Rican Sonia Martínez, a resident of New York, explained. For her part, 27-year-old Mexican María José Campos said that she was impressed by the “gastronomy and culture.”