After more than a decade of wait, the President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, along with the Minister of Tourism, Mauricio Ventura, placed the first stone of Costa Rica’s National Congress and Convention Center (CNCC) today.

Solis confirmed that beyond the infrastructure in itself, the CNCC represents a challenge that the country had to take on when it decided to diversify its offering and venture in new touristic products.

“The CNCC represents a country project, it will benefit the entire country, and without a doubt it will invigorate the tourism industry, providing employment, real estate development, generating supply chains, and in general it will better the image of the country as a consolidated tourism destination”, stated Solis.

On the other hand, Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism, assured that placing the first stone represents years of effort, of actions carried out by past governments and the determination with which this administration prioritized the project.

“Certainly the country had to wait more than 15 years for a construction that will take a year to build. The National Congress and Convention Center has been a priority in the current administration, because we know that beyond a building, we are establishing a precedent in the history of tourism in Costa Rica, with the hopes of competing in the global industry of meetings”, affirmed Ventura.

He also stated that the National Congress and Convention Center represents the visible head of meetings tourism, segment that the Costa Rican Tourism Institute is venturing into through the participation in specialized touristic fairs in different parts of the world, the strategic alliance with important organisms related to the topic such as the International Congress and Convention Association, and the Confederation of Congress Organizers in Latin America, among others.

The actions have contemplated a reinforcement in the investigation, the gathering of data and statistic analysis on the current and historic trends of the market, the assessment of world-class experts and the development of the Promotional Plan of Meetings Tourism and Incentives 2015-2018, a tool that seeks to assist with the organization, the development and implementation of communication and marketing aspects that promote the image of the country as a suitable destination for meetings tourism.

According to the World Tourism Organization, the meetings tourism is a very dynamic sector that offers countless benefits to the local economies and its accelerated growth promotes competition among the countries. The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) registers globally 120 thousand congresses, it is an industry that generates 11 thousand million dollars annually.