Visitor arrivals from Canada and Europe increased sharply over the past year, with US arrivals dropping, according to figures released on Thursday by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
During the first semester of the year, Costa Rica received 14,900 Canadians more than last year, for a total of 130,815. Europeans, meanwhile, grew by 13,196 for a total of 232,867. In the same period, visitors from the United States dropped by 13,756, for a total of 695,561. Despite this, this country remains the main source of foreign arrivals, with 42.6%.
According to the ICT, this behavior was “expected” since it is recurrent after the period of US presidential elections.
In contrast, Europe showed steady growth in international arrivals (8.4% by air and a 6% increase by all routes to the country), according to data provided by the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration and Analyzed by the ICT.
Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism, explained that this change reflects the work done by the ICT in strengthening the promotion in Europe and thereby reduce the natural dependence on the United States.
France led the european arrivals by air, for a total of 35,759 arrivals, followed by the United Kingdom with 35,759 and Germany with 27,856.
According to Ventura, this growth is related to the increase in the number of direct flights from Europe. Costa Rica has eight European airlines, seven of which have been negotiated in the last two years (Iberia from Spain, British Airways and Thomson Airways from the UK, Condor from Germany, Air France from France, Edelweiss from Switzerland, KLM from the Netherlands and Lufthansa From Germany.)