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Boston, MA -- (SBWire) -- 11/06/2013 --The Costa Rica tourism report examines the significant long-term potential currently being demonstrated by the local tourism industry. It raises concerns about the proliferation of drug-trafficking throughout Central America, which poses a challenge to Costa Rican authorities and could potentially deter tourism to the region. We also analyse the growth strategies being employed by the country to continue to attract arrivals, including airport and port expansions, as well as continued efforts to remain an eco-tourism destination.

Costa Rica's tourist industry is set to register positive growth in 2013, with BMI forecasting arrivals growth of 1.0%. We believe this reflects a slowdown in tourist visits from North America and Europe, owing to ongoing economic weakness. Despite slower arrivals in 2013, the country is still attracting strong interest from international hotel chains, with several major new hotels scheduled to open in 2013 and 2014. We expect such investment to continue, with hotel groups looking to bolster their presence in the country for when demand picks up again.

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Presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for February 2014. Despite the unpopularity of incumbent President Laura Chinchilla, we do not expect any outbreaks of violent protest surrounding the elections, with tourists largely unaffected except by major campaign rallies in urban centres such as San Jose. Moreover, as Costa Rica's political parties are all agreed on the importance of tourism to the country's economy, there is highly unlikely to be any change to the current favourable stance towards the tourist industry to change following the elections.

Key forecasts for Costa Rica's tourism industry:

- BMI has revised down its rate of inbound tourist arrival growth in 2013, to 1.0% from a previous forecast of 2.4%. This reflects slower growth in key source markets such as the US.
- BMI has reduced its forecasts for outbound tourism in 2013. Overall outbound tourism will grow by 2.1%, but departure to the main markets will slow. This is noted particularly in Europe, where forecasts of 2.5% growth over the forecast period to 2017 have been reduced to below 0.3% per year.
- BMI has revised its forecast for hotels and restaurants industry growth over the forecast period, anticipating a rise in value to US$1.74bn in 2017, up from US$1.71bn in 2013.

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