Costa Rica picked up a splashy piece of global tourism exposure this awards season after a luxury stay in Playa Hermosa was included in the 2026 “Everyone Wins” gift bags handed to select Oscar nominees. The unofficial packages, assembled by marketing company Distinctive Assets for the 24th straight year, were distributed ahead of the 98th Academy Awards and sent to 25 nominees in the acting and directing categories. The bags are not affiliated with the Academy, and this year’s editions were valued at about $350,000 each.
Costa Rica’s place in the package came through Essence of Dreams, a private villa in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste. The property is marketed as a 15,500 square foot luxury villa with seven suites and room for up to 18 guests. Listings for the villa describe full-service staffing that includes a private chef, concierge and other guest support, along with panoramic views over the Pacific and the surrounding mountains. Multiple reports tied the Costa Rica stay in the gift bag to a value of roughly $30,000.
The Costa Rica stay was packaged alongside other high-end travel experiences in places such as Ibiza, Sri Lanka and Finland’s Arctic region, along with wellness treatments, luxury services and branded products. That put Costa Rica in one of the most publicized celebrity gift packages of the year, where the real value is often less about the recipients themselves than the media attention and social sharing that follow. Participating brands pay for placement, hoping the publicity and celebrity exposure will carry their products and destinations far beyond the Oscars audience.
For Costa Rica, the placement fits neatly into a broader tourism strategy that has increasingly leaned into higher-end travel. Our country’s official tourism website actively markets luxury travel built around upscale accommodations, private flights, elite dining and exclusive experiences, showing how Costa Rica’s image has expanded beyond budget ecotourism into the premium segment.
That shift has been especially visible in Guanacaste, where beach communities such as Playa Hermosa have drawn increasing attention from affluent international travelers looking for privacy, ocean views and nature-focused stays with easy access from Liberia’s international airport. In that sense, the Oscar gift bag placement was more than a celebrity novelty. It was a targeted piece of destination marketing aimed at travelers with the means to book private villas, longer stays and curated experiences.
The result was one of the most glamorous tourism mentions Costa Rica can buy its way into: a place inside a Hollywood gift bag built to capture headlines, circulate on social media and keep the country in front of a global audience that associates travel with exclusivity, status and spectacle.
