Tourism lead services exports in the second quarter of 2016, recording 48.4% of total services exports. Therefore, this activity has become the biggest contributor to the recovery in the growth rate of exports in the first half of 2016, compared with the same period last year.
Such information appears from the quarterly analysis of the evolution of exports of goods (third quarter) and services (II quarter) of Costa Rica, released on Wednesday by the Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER), which indicates that travel exports(tourism) increased by 15.8% at the end of the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year.
Mauricio Ventura, Tourism Minister, said these results consolidate the positioning of tourism as an engine for development of the national economy, revitalizing industry that promotes development, fosters project generation and encourages the creation of productive chains.
Figures from PROCOMER and the Central Bank support the importance of tourism and the transcendental weight it has in our economy. Thanks to this activity, more than 600 thousand people work directly and indirectly in tourism, which accounts for 27% of the country’s workforce. No other industry has the impact tourism has when it democratizes income, and we have a diverse tourism product, which is distributed throughout the national territory,”
said Ventura.
The new measurement of GDP by the Central Bank of Costa Rica, resulted in a distribution of GDP among the productive sectors.
It showed that the service industry rose from 10% of the country’s output in 1966 to 40% in 2012, becoming the most important activity, while agriculture and manufacturing lost strength.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Trade, it is estimated that a little less than half of that 40% is tourism, which means that a sector that generates approximately 20% of the Costa Rican GDP is undoubtedly the development engine of this economy.
In addition, only the previous year tourism generated more than $ 2,800 million in foreign exchange.