In this context, Travel2latam had the opportunity to speak with William Rodríguez, Minister of Tourism of Costa Rica.
At the Political Forum, you put on the table that we must not lose sight of sustainability. Could you give a comment on how you have experienced it?
From the point of view of Costa Rica, not from the Minister, we consider that at the moment everyone talks about sustainability, but not everyone understands the concept in the same way. The issue of sustainability from our perspective, taking into account that we are the country that chairs the United Nations Commission on Tourism and Sustainability, we must implement it and stop talking.
So our call as a country and as in my case, president of the UN Commission on Tourism and Sustainability, is gentlemen, let's stop talking, let's act because what the planet demands and it has to be an action now, not within 20 or 30 years. That was basically my message, I hope it is understood in a good way in the sense that we all want the same thing, nothing more than that we are not all going the same path, and we are all in the same position to achieve that goal to 2030.
For Costa Rica, caring for the environment has always been a priority, but the concept of sustainability is not only the environment, right?
The concept of sustainability is based on three: the social, economic and environmental pillars. And we started exactly 76 years ago, when Costa Rica decided to eliminate the army and allocate those resources to education and health, and that has made Costa Rica a better, healthier society. A society with a life expectancy similar to developed countries, that really understands what education is, but not only education from the point of view of knowing how to read and write, but an education that serves for employability, and for a series of aspects, because it is easier for an educated person to accept instructions, to process instructions in a better way.
Obviously, after the promulgation of the National Parks law, a different turn was given to the conservation of natural resources, to the point that today they are the raw material of tourism in Costa Rica. We have that very clear, and that is why we are not going to deviate from that path. We would like to go faster in some things, but we know that not everything depends on us, that is the big difference between the path we follow and the speed we take on that path.
Today we are here at Fiexpo, with what expectations do you come to this event, remembering that you are going to host it for the next three years?
We have always greatly appreciated Fiexpo as an important event. We must understand meeting tourism, MICE tourism as we call it, that it is not just meetings; They are conferences, conventions, incentive trips, etc. We perfectly understand what MICE tourism means for Costa Rica. We allocate a good part of our efforts and resources to effective promotion, because there are promotions to effective marketing of what MICE tourism is. We know the weight it has in the economy of Costa Rica and we know the impact it produces not only in the tourism chain, but in other sectors that are outside, such as translators, sound service providers, etc.
We appreciate Fiexpo very much, so much so that we are going to make it its headquarters for the next three years.
Leaving the event a bit, I would like you to give me a review of the year's milestones...
There is excellent news, which is not unexpected from the point of view that we have worked for it. The month of May behaved as if it were a high season month, when it is normally the first month of the low season. We were far above expectations. This implies that in the accumulated five months from January to May of this year, compared to the same period last year, we are 15% higher.
Our expectation for the entire year is an increase of 5.7% compared to 2023. But I am sure that at least June and June, which is where I can see a series of indicators, will be well above that percentage. This is combined with aspects that are essential for us and are part of what we do permanently, such as attracting airlines, not only new airlines, but those that already fly so that they increase their frequencies and/or their destinations.
This year we have been more than successful in that. We announce a new flight from São Paulo to San José, starting in the month of November. We have similar news and we are going to have a good live show. Yesterday we had a meeting with Copa here in Panama, that we are going to exploit two markets via connection in Panama. And on the other hand, the next high season, meaning November to April of next year, will be a high season beyond all consideration. That entails an issue that is not negative, but it must be managed, and with the infrastructure we have we must face that next season. We cannot do anything new that will allow us to ensure that travelers' first and last experience is better or worse, but we can do a series of actions that have nothing to do with infrastructure. We can prepare so that all immigration services are as they should be, so that all customs and airport services are good, as well as the transportation system and service at the airports.
That is to say, we have to start now, and prepare for the next season, because from a promotional point of view there is nothing to do, the high season is already sold out, so we have to prepare to receive those trips.
The first comment I make from his entire statement is the good news for Guanacaste.
At the recent meeting in Cuba, Amadeus presented a study of the expected growth for the different airports in Latin America. The number one in Latin America in expected growth in operations is called Liberia, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. And that, once again, imposes important challenges on us. But there is an additional aspect that I have not told you, is that in November we inaugurated two high-end hotels in Guanacaste, Ritz-Carlton and Waldorf Astoria.
What are the characteristics of these hotels, in addition to being highly recognized hotels worldwide?
They produce their own demand. We must help them by maintaining the country as an attractive destination, but they produce their own demand that arrives on their own jets, requiring a series of very high-level services. That is, they are people who do not travel in tourist minibuses or drive their own rental car. So that causes us to adjust some of the services so that we can satisfy that demand.
We have a bigger challenge, and it is the general aviation ramp at the Guanacaste airport that is short. We no longer have space or high season to accommodate all the private jets that arrive, which means that many of those jets have to go to Santamaría Airport. But it just so happens that in San José we still have a problem of limited space, so some of those jets have to go to destinations outside of Costa Rica and that is not adequate. These types of people want to have the jet as much as they would have their car, because if they have to leave to attend an urgent meeting, they do not need the plane to come from Panama or some other Central American destination. We are going to work on this now, because each of those things demands others, along with time and investment. It is likely that private investors will have to be obtained and that will in turn generate an expected profitability.
But the most important thing is that there is demand and that will justify all the effort in time and money that you are having as a challenge...
Maybe I put it in one way, I hope I don't offend anyone with these words, but if there is something nice it is having challenges to manage wealth. The problem is when the challenges are to manage poverty, because they are much more difficult to achieve. We are facing one of those beautiful challenges, ones that demand not only action, but creativity, because not all solutions are the same for everyone. We don't necessarily have to follow a defined route, we have to think outside the box, and that obviously implies that two actors join this government effort; the airport administrators, in the case of Guanacaste, Coripot, which is a concessionaire, and in the case of Juan Santamaría, Aeris, which is the interested manager. Because without their help and collaboration we would not achieve it. And on the other hand, which is not strange for us because we do it all the time, it is the private company, the private sector.
We have to work hand in hand with the private sector, because certainly as a country we are being successful in doing so. We have to make them see a business opportunity and dare to take the initiatives they have to take.
I took office two years ago, a little more, and we work with a third of the budget we had before the pandemic. We generated our own resources at the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, and with what we had, we focused on the nine markets that are priorities for us across Canada, the US and Mexico, and six markets in Europe. We have overcome that stage, by 2024 we already have the same budget that we had in 2019 and that allows us to explore new markets.
Was one of them Brazil?
Yes, Brazil. We have already achieved the first element that is essential for us; have direct, non-stop communication from that market. There is another market that is also in Latin America, and I will reserve the name for the moment, where we are working to achieve the same thing. That is an additional investment. The results are not the same from the point of view of efficiency, that is, investment versus return on that investment that we have in traditional markets. But if we know how to do it well, we will have them leveled soon. The tide is rising for everyone and that is currently the strategy, considering that we are going to treat MICE tourism as if it were just another country.