Six hotels in the cantons of Aguirre, Garabito and Puntarenas, all in the central Pacific region, have been chosen to implement an energy-saving plan, part of a larger effort to reduce energy expenditures throughout Costa Rica’s tourism industry.
The project, overseen by the Biomass Users Network (BUN-CA), is funded by FundeCooperación, a fund created by the Costa Rica-Holland Bilateral Treaty for Sustainable Development, according to a statement from BUN-CA.
Participating hotels include Hotel Parador and Sà Como No in Manuel Antonio, Club de Mar in Jacó Beach, Marriott Los Sueños in Herradura Beach and Hotel Tioga in Puntarenas.
Kattia Quirós, project official for the network, said in the statement that renewable  energy firms from Holland participatedin planning the project; BUN-CA has conducted workshops in various cantons to inform hotel-sector leaders about energysaving methods and conducted energy audits to better understand the sector’s electricity use.
The resulting plan, called Energy-Efficiency in the Tourism Sector, got under way at the beginning of 2005 with efforts to provide information about reducing energy consumption to businesses.P articipating hotels can earn a Sustainable Tourism Certificate from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
Electricity consumption in the central Pacific region, a rapidly growing tourist zone, has shown an annual increase of 15% in recent years, the statement said.
For more information on the program, call 283-8835.
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