Costa Rica and Panama to Invest in Joint Marketing to Europe.

Though Panama and Costa Rica are rivals for American tourists, the two countries have decided to join efforts in attracting European tourism. Carlos Ricardo Benavides, Costa Rican Minister of Tourism, and his Panamanian equal, the world-famous singer and Panama Minister of Tourism, Rúben Blades, met yesterday, July 14, at the Costa Rica Tourism Institute (ICT) to discuss tourism packages and European marketing strategy.

The joint promotions will concentrate on European tourists for several reasons. To begin, Europeans vacation for longer than their American counterparts. “We think that visits from a market that is far away would be well conditioned for these goals, because these tourists leave home for more than a month, and visit several different countries during their vacation,” explained Benavides. This time frame will allow Europeans to experience a good portion of both countries, and Costa Rica and Panama will effectively split marketing costs, while benefiting equally from the tourism euros.

Benavides and Blades also believe that Europeans will appreciate a joint Costa Rica-Panama package, partially because the countries border one another, allowing for a quick land passage or just a one hour flight. In addition, Costa Rica’s strong eco-tourism will be well-complemented by Panama’s archaeological monuments and diverse shopping, allowing for well-diversified vacations that meet almost every tourist’s specifications.

However, though the two countries are looking forward to their joint European initiative, they will not create a united front in the United States or Canada. For both Central American nations, North America supplies the majority of tourism – in fact, Costa Rican statistics show that approximately 54 percent of tourists (about 1.03 million people) came from the United States last year, a number they do not want to share. Just 17 percent of tourists to Costa Rica, or about 323,000 visitors, arrived from Europe in 2007.

Blades and Benavides will meet again in August to discuss strategy and promotion joint Panama and Costa Rica vacation packages. The meeting will take place in Panama, and the two Tourism Ministers will discuss trouble-shooting tactics, as well. Blades has already discussed the necessity to increase the number of  Costa Rica Flights to Panama, in order to account for more inter-country tourists. In addition, Blades estimates that Panama is short about 4,000 hotel rooms, and will need to build more hotels to account for an increase in incoming tourists. On the Costa Rican side, Benavides admitted that both the Juan Santamaría Airport (Alajuela) and Daniel Oduber Airport (Liberia) are in need of repairs and renovations.

Minister Blades has also expressed interest in improving Panama’s reputation towards the environment, hoping to increase the country’s appeal to investors. The goal is to “make what is (ecologically speaking) not accepted in Costa Rica also unacceptable in Panama. The investors’ happiness cannot be based on the unhappiness of a country,” commented Blades, stating that, while he is in favor of development, it must be sustainable development.

Both Costa Rica and Panama’s Tourism Ministers are excited to join efforts in attracting European tourism to the southern part of Central America. With attractive combined packages that include no-hassle travel between the two countries, they hope to increase the number of European tourists arriving to the region each year.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on July 15th, 2008