Alejandro Castro, Marketing Director of Costa Rica’s Tourism Ministry

Caribbean News Digital talked with Alejandro Castro-Alfaro, who works for Costa Rica’s government team and the Tourism Ministry, as Marketing Director.

How is the Costa Rican Tourism Ministry presently structured?

Wilhelm von Breymann is the new minister. He took office nearly 10 months ago. Then we have Alberto Lopez, our General Manager, and I’m the Assistant Director and Marketing Director.

What are Costa Rica’s new incentives for tourism?

We know for sure that sustainable tourism has been our DNA, in a manner of speaking. We have been pioneers, we have worked for over 35 years in that field and we will preserve that stronghold. We have added different niches that are pretty important, such as wellness, which is currently gaining momentum, and adventure tourism. We have the perfect scenery for adventure tourism and several activities are being carried out. Another interesting guideline is related to honeymoons and wedding destination.

We’re presently developing our first strategy aimed at the MICE segment. We have everything we need to hold high-quality and sustainable meetings.

Do you think that gastronomy is another incentive for people to visit your country?

Yes. The gastronomy realm is somehow related to the sustainability matter. We always use healthy products, we strongly believe in the farm-to-table movement and our eco-lodges are very prestigious. We have a significant number of eco-lodges and hotels with 40 rooms or less. Many of them cultivate the products they use to prepare food for their guests.

Could the creation of a gastronomy academy in your country, in order to guide and somehow classify chefs and restaurants, be a positive move?         

Of course, and we’re developing a sophisticated program. Every step we take in terms of regulating and establishing standards is very positive, as it helps us be more competitive and it could strengthen our position.

Could creating an acronym, for all languages spoken in Iberian-America, be a distinctive symbol to stand apart from Michelin stars, Repsol’s suns or US diamonds?

Of course it could. Just like the Tourism Sustainability Certificate we issued in 1996, everything that helps us measure quality is going to benefit our tourism product.

What are your Latin American target destinations in the near future?

We have a quite-general strategy and well-defined markets, but we’re aware of the potential of such markets as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, which are very important due to our geographic position.

In terms of the need for new airlines, what are your main tourism outbound destinations?

We’re looking forward to attracting more European airlines. We know that there is a market to be exploited, a lot of people want to come and airplanes sell all their seats. So we’re aware of the potential in this market. We’re also trying to improve the airlift with the United States. It’s one of the markets with the highest airlift numbers and this is important to bring more tourists in.

What’s the percentage of tourists traveling from Canada and the US to your country?

Nearly 64 percent of the international arrivals by plane are related to North America (Canada and USA), followed by Europe (17 percent) and South America with 7 percent.

What’s the most important market: east coast, west coast or the north?

The coasts are very important, but the east one stands among the utmost destinations, due to the high airlift we have with this area of the United States.

What’s the main outbound destination in Latin America?

Mexico is the third tourism outbound market for Costa Rica by air and the main one of Latin American.

Is there any specific state that stands out, any region of the country?

Most of the flights come from DF.

The airlift provided by Copa is opening different destinations within Mexico. Could it benefit you as well?

We have pretty good airlift with Panama. We not only have flights, but we’re connected by land. We’re very close from each other, we’re small countries and it’s very easy to establish communications.

Have you inked multi-destination agreements with such countries as Panama?

Yes, we have. We work with the Marketing Committee and we’re studying how to improve the multi-destination product for the European market.

Do you have the figures related to Costa Rica’s investment per market: North America, South America and Europe?

The figures are quite similar to the percentage of tourist we receive. There is a close relation.

Is there a fixed percentage?

Our structure is very similar, but there are certain markets where we have to work harder, due to different reasons.    

The United States ranks first on Costa Rica’s list of tourism outbound markets. Likewise, Europe went nearly 20 percent up if compared to the previous year, so France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom are our major outbound markets in the Old World.