Costa Rica Takes Steps to Reignite Tourism After Disappointing 2025

• Costa Rica’s tourism sector closed 2025 with only marginal growth, underscoring mounting concerns about the country’s competitiveness in an increasingly crowded regional market. According to the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR), international tourist arrivals rose just 1% last year, well below global and regional trends.
• Costa Rica welcomed 2.69Mn visitors by air in 2025, up slightly from 2.6Mn in 2024. While the result spared the industry from an outright contraction, tourism leaders said the performance fell short of expectations for one of Central America’s flagship destinations. The weak expansion contrasted sharply with stronger results elsewhere in the region. Colombia reported growth of about 4%, the Dominican Republic 5%, Mexico 6%, and Guatemala surged ahead with a 10% increase in arrivals, according to CANATUR. The gap, Shirley Calvo, executive director of CANATUR, highlights Costa Rica’s untapped potential and the urgency of corrective measures.
• North America remained Costa Rica’s dominant source market in 2025, accounting for nearly two million visitors. However, arrivals from the United States grew by just 0.5%, signalling stagnation in a market that has traditionally powered the country’s tourism engine. Europe performed worse, posting a 2.1% decline amid economic uncertainty and shifting travel patterns. South America provided the brightest spot, with arrivals jumping 14.5%, helping to cushion losses earlier in the year.
• CANATUR attributed Costa Rica’s under-performance to a combination of structural and external factors. A strong exchange rate has made the destination more expensive relative to its peers, eroding competitiveness. Infrastructure constraints, concerns about public safety, and the rapid expansion of informal accommodations and unregulated tour operators have also strained the formal tourism economy and affected employment.
• Against this backdrop, Costa Rica’s tourism sector has unveiled a sweeping National Tourism Strategy designed to reverse the trend. The plan targets more than 5.2 million annual visitors by 2035, with projected revenues exceeding $11Bn and the creation of nearly 300,000 jobs.
• Martí Jiménez, president of CANATUR, said the strategy reflects a hard reassessment of the country’s value proposition. “We’ve hit the brakes because our price-product relationship has lost competitiveness. The assumption that demand for Costa Rica is price-inelastic no longer holds,” he stressed. The strategy also emphasises the need for a stronger legal and regulatory foundation to attract long-term investment. Larry Hans Arroyo Vargas, an attorney at Bufete de Costa Rica, said a successful tourism plan must extend beyond promotion. “Clear regulations, streamlined permitting, and legal certainty for investors are fundamental,” he said. “That stability is what allows sustainable projects to take root.”
• Regional competition is also eroding Costa Rica’s once-dominant position in eco-tourism. To counter these pressures, the plan proposes upgrading infrastructure at national parks, creating a government-level “tourism cabinet” to coordinate policy, and elevating gastronomy and local beverages as core elements of the visitor experience. It also aims to channel growth toward rural, coastal, and border communities, using tourism as a driver of social and economic inclusion.

(Source: Travel Mode)