As a result of the recent visit of the Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solís and the Minister of Tourism Mauricio Ventura to Spain, an agreement was signed with the Spanish aviation company Iberia to promote Costa Rica to the Italian market.

Iberia will be using two direct flights Milan-Madrid and Roma-Madrid to connect both cities and their travelers with San José, Costa Rica; in order to do this Iberia will improve the connection between flights from Rome and Milan with the flight Madrid-San José, this will make the transit of travelers through Terminal 4 of the Adolfo Suarez Barajas Airport in Madrid a lot more agile and efficient; the schedules of the flights that come in from Italy and the connecting flights from Spain to Costa Rica will also be adjusted to have a shorter lay over and therefore offer a more comfortable and convenient alternative to travelers.

In 2016 Costa Rica received 24,173 Italian visitors, a number that increased by 7.7% in comparison to 2015.

The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) has made big efforts to connect several European countries with Costa Rica through direct flights, and has highlighted the importance this market has for the country.

“For Iberia, Costa Rica is an important market and we have contributed with the development of the country as a tourism destination in Europe since 2004 when the direct flights begun. The cooperation with ICT has been very productive, and now we are going to focus on the Italian market which has a lot of potential”, stated Neil Chernoff, Director of Networks and Alliances of Iberia.