Tourism Police Director Xinia Vásquez told The Tico Times in a telephone interview that crimes against tourists have shown a downward trend since 2010.
Nosara hoteliers said that dozens of travelers hadn’t made reservations, and they arrived in the remote village with nowhere to sleep. Some asked to set up tents in hotels’ lawns and parking lots. But after weathering the Costa Rican “winter,” proprietors were happy to see the return of tourism.
High operating costs, especially electricity, threaten Costa Rica’s reputation as an affordable tourist destination, industry representatives tell The Tico Times.
One of the first things the State Department would like to do when diplomatic relations are reestablished with Cuba is to renovate the once and future U.S. Embassy building — a six-story, 1950s-era structure on the Havana waterfront that is in desperate need of a new roof.
The Prosecutor’s Office and the Judicial Investigation Police have opened an investigation into the causes of the Pura Vida Princess catamaran accident to determine whether or not the ship’s captain was negligent, Tatiana Vargas, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to The Tico Times.
Early Thursday morning, 99 vacationers boarded the Pura Vida Princess, a 100-foot catamaran, in Playa Herradura on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast for an all inclusive day trip to Tortuga Island. Roughly 30 minutes later, at about 8:40 a.m., the ship issued a distress call and quickly sank in high winds and rough sea off the coast of the beach town of Punta Leona. Three passengers died.
Increasing purchasing power and fewer travel restrictions has made of Chinese travelers one of the most coveted demographics for tourist destinations. China has become the world’s largest source for international tourists, who spent $129 billion on travel in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organization.
President Barack Obama announced major changes in the United States’ 53-year embargo on communist Cuba Wednesday, but don’t pack your bags just yet. Tourism was not among the travel exemptions listed by the White House.
Seeing an active volcano is one of Costa Rica’s main attractions for both local and foreign tourists, but people in the country’s NorthEast area are risking the lives of travelers by taking groups of them just meters away from craters at distances that could be fatal if an eruption or a gas explotion occurs.
Beach hotel owners were the most optimistic in the survey, reporting that they expect at least 91 percent occupancy in the Central Pacific, 89 percent occupancy in the Northern Pacific (Guanacaste), 85 percent in the Southern Pacific and 69 percent in the Caribbean.
