Tourism in Costa Rica 1

Tourism in Costa Rica is HUGE. It recently beat out banana's as the countries number one foreign currency earner. Which means that tourism is the countries number one source of income. We are here as tourist and every dollar spent here is tourist money for Costa Rica. Things to do here range from bungee jumping to beautiful beaches. Thus far we have toured the main sites in San Jose and coffee plantations. Tourism is a $1.9 billion dollar industry in the country. Costa Rica is the most visited country in Central America with 1.9 million visitors in 2007. Most tourists come from the USA at 54% and Europe with 14%. Eco-Tourism is also huge which includes the national parks and protected areas that cannot be developed. Our tour guide says that more and more of the forests are being developed into hotels and such which traps the animals into a smaller and smaller area. One reason Costa Rica is such a hot spot for tourists is its unbelieveable biodiversity, with 24 protected parks.

The difference between ecotourism and tourism is that normal tourism is a beach lined with crowded hotels and theme parks. Ecotourism offers a much more natural option to tourism by simply enjoying the wonders of nature. Ecotourism takes visitors to remote regions not fully developed (such as Monteverde) so that they may see diverse wildlife and an escape to the modernized world. Ecotourism is a relatively new concept that is the fastest growing tourism industry with average growth of 20-30% per year. The reason for the boom is that consumers are becoming more and more eco friendly and more concerned with the planets well being. Tourists now want the feeling of being environmentally responsible while at the same time enjoying the wonders of nature. The number of tourists that visit Costa Rica is rising each year bringing even more revenue to the country. One commonly accepted definition for this new concept of ec0tourism is, "purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the culture and natural history of the environment; taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem; producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people".