Costa Rica stands out internationally for the implementation of the Social Progress Index in Touristic Resorts, which was presented on Monday to the World Tourism Organization (WTO).
The country ranked 12 among the finalists in the awards for Innovation and Excellence in Tourism. This event was held in Spain and was organized by the WTO, prior to the International Tourism Fair (FITUR), which starts on January 18th.
Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism, and Roberto Artavia, president of the Executive Council INCAE, were in charge of the presentation.
Minister Ventura commented that Costa Rica became the first country to carry out the measurement of the Social Progress Index (IPS) in Tourist Centers.
According to Artavia, this measurement is aligned with the objectives of Sustainable Development of the United Nations, which represents a tool to promote joint actions among leaders and decision makers from the tourist centers, with the aim of developing an agenda of strategies and social interventions to ensure the improvement of the lives of people in their communities.
In the first stage 10 resorts were selected to represent different types of sustainable tourism development in the country (Fortuna, Papagayo, Tamarindo, Santa Teresa, Monteverde, Drake, Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo, San Gerardo and Manuel Antonio).
The ICT and INCAE developed the project and conducted a household-level survey designed to obtain the necessary information in accordance with the methodology of the Index of Social Progress.
This is the first comprehensive measurement of performance of a community, allowing the assessment of people’s welfare in an independent society with complementary actions to traditional economic measures such as gross domestic product (GDP), income or indicators of competitiveness.
This is done in order to facilitate a better intervention by the State, civil society and private companies, regarding the adequate identification of social and environmental priorities.