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| William Rodriguez, President
of CANATUR and General Manager of United Airlines,
Costa Rica |
| Courtesy CANATUR |
Costa Ricans have long claimed that their nation
has been shaped by the independent and strong-headed
nature of its people, the difficulty in harnessing
the land, and the lack of gold and other mineral
reserves.
Over the last half century another important trait
has emerged which helps to define this small Central
American land—the government’s anti-monopolistic
policies and willingness to help its citizens to
benefit from the country’s wealth. This ideology
became known as “social democracy,” and
is still the prevailing form of governance.
Over 80% of Costa Rica’s tourism industry
is in the hands of small to medium-sized entrepreneurs.
William Rodriguez, president of the Costa Rican
Chamber of National Tourism (CANATUR) says that
his chamber currently has about 400 members, primarily
travel agencies, tour operators, airlines, and restaurants—all
in a nation of only four million inhabitants.
When Rodriguez talks about the potential of his
country, he explains, “We are not Mexico, but
we have little things to offer.”
Sometimes it feels as if Costa Rica underestimates
its tourism potential. This could be due, in part,
because nations in this part of the world tend to
compare themselves to Mexico. Costa Rica has such
international chains as Intercontinental, Occidental,
Sol Melia, Marriott and Barcelo. Many have several
hotels in the country, ranging from beach and golf
resorts, to business-oriented hotels.
The Four Seasons is building a beach resort, slated
for completion next year. These hotels offer four
and five-star luxury, but they also offer a greater
sense of quiet and privacy than, for example, the
Cancun area.
The largest convention center in all of Central
America is found at the Hotel Herradura, a locally
managed hotel near the San José airport.
More and more boutique-style hotels are opening
in Costa Rica. One of them is US owned – the
Alta Group, with two hotels in San José,
the other along the beach. One of the company’s
vice-presidents, Wolfgang Brunner, believes that
the Alta Hotel in San José is the only boutique
hotel in the capital. According to Brunner, “Customers
looking for boutique hotels generally do not go
to the downtown. They are starting to look for other
things too, such as… what the kitchen is like.
This is why our hotel was created –a small
hotel can offer more unique services.”
Another competitor to international chains is
Hotel Amon Plaza that, until recently, used to belong
to the Barcelo chain. It regularly hosts Latin American
conferences. This medium-sized hotel is, according
to General Manager Enrique Torrent, “close
to the financial, banking, theatre, legal, and aristocratic
area of San José.”
Currently undergoing renovations that should be
completed by year’s end, the hotel regularly
hosts international gastronomic festivals.
Outside of San José, in the medium and
large-sized resorts, there is a tendency to move
towards all-inclusive tourism packages. Hotel Fiesta,
considered the first luxury hotel along the Pacific,
also has the beautifully decorated Palma Real Hotel
in San José.
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| Grupo Papagayo decided to
build resort communities in two of the most
popular tourist destinations, Guanacaste and
Tortuguero. Above, the Jungle Lodge. |
| Courtesy Grupo Papagayo |
Also along the Pacific, the Melia Conchal is being
redesigned to meet the all-inclusive concept, and
to better compete in this region – the most
highly visited part of Costa Rica.
Another tendency among hotels is to form groups.
Small Distinctive Hotels of Costa Rica consists
of five hotels, scattered around the country. Mauricio
Aymerich, marketing representative, reveals the
history of the group: “The idea was to find
and get together hotels with the same quality, service-level,
type of location and food. For small hotels like
us, it is easier to fight against international
and large hotels if we are a group.”
One new group, the Charming Nature Hotels of Costa
Rica, has eight hotels across the country. Managed
by Europeans, they are placing an emphasis on tour
maps, which reveal the surroundings in a more intimate
way.
All Costa Rica Destinations was formed four months
ago in order to fight against the power of large
hotels, and to make more and more areas of Costa
Rica better known. The group has twenty hotels as
well as a car rental service. It has already attracted
many North Americans, who appreciate the fact that
the prices remain the same all year around.
As always, it is not merely the quantity of accommodations,
but the attitudes of the owners and investors in
Costa Rican tourism.
This small Central American country has always
attracted visitors interested in peace and nature.
This tendency continues into the present, among
the more recent examples being Grupo Papagayo, and
the Moscarelli Family.
Anna Moscarelli, president of Grupo Papagayo,
came to Costa Rica near the end of the 1990s. She
bought two hotels and built one –Jungle Lodge
in Tortuguero, Giardia Papagayo and El Nakuti in
Guanacaste. She has previously been deeply involved
in charity and philanthropy work in East-Africa,
and believes that a person can only become independent
through working.
Moscarelli believes it’s beneficial to give
people work instead of money. “I employ 160
Costa Ricans, and this is one of the ways to help
this country.” However, Moscarelli has also
donated learning materials to schools –one
of them in Tortuguero where her hotel, Jungle Lodge
is located. Moreover, a few months ago she adopted
two young girls, who, without Mrs. Moscarelli, would
surely be facing a difficult future.
Her fist adopted daughter, Mars Moscarelli, “competes”
with her mother in terms of charity work. Moscarelli,
together with Youval Dotan, work to help orphans.
The program included a variety of activities,
and is based on three aspects of peace: peace with
oneself, environment and assisting others. They
attempted to give the children not only happy moments
to remember, but also a greater capacity for dealing
with the future.
They are planning to continue organizing these
programs together with the United Nations. One of
the interesting future goals is to gather children
from conflict zones, bring them to a neutral location
such as Costa Rica, which also has a long history
of stability and peace and is therefore ideal for
this kind of activities. At the arrival, every child
would then need to “erase” his or her
own identity, on which the conflicts in today’s
world are often based on, and start to build a new
one –free from subjectivity and pre-assumptions.
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