Bananas, pineapple exports and medical devices, all of great importance to Costa Rica’s economy but they still don’t come close to the numbers tourism generates for the country.
Throughout the last 10 years the tourism industry has contributed over U.S. $28 billion to the country’s finances and with the exception of 2009, when the world crisis affected the numbers, the growth has been of close to 10% every year.

The export of products such as bananas has generated from 2008 through 2017 close to U.S. $8.3 billion; followed by pineapple exports which in the same period of time accumulated U.S. $7.6 billion and medical devices which has continued to grow in the past years represented a total U.S. $4.5 billion.

The total number of visitors during those 10 years came close to 24 million; out of which, 40% were from the United States, 28% came from Central America, 14% from Europe, 6% from South America and the remaining 12% from other regions.

The Costa Rica Tourism Board is now focusing its efforts not just in the attraction of new airlines but also on the meetings and congresses tourism with the construction of the new convention center which is expected to generate from its inauguration in April this year and through 2021 close to $180 million considering the number of activities that are already confirmed (to take place in the new convention center and other venues) which is of close to 60; cultural tourism is also an area of interest not just because it’s something of interest to the tourists but because it will contribute to the economy of different communities, and finally the transformation of the city of San Jose to exploit the different sites of cultural and historic interests.

Costa Rica still has a lot of work ahead in terms of infrastructure and protection of natural resources, but the numbers generated by the tourism sector are a good motivator to continue to invest in these two areas.