In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Rafael Quesada, Head of the Promotion and Specialized Segments Department of the ICT, Costa Rican Tourism Institute.
What are your expectations and goals for this event?
Costa Rica always comes with a lot of expectations. We bring quite a few businessmen, more than 20, and we want them to do a lot of business. In fact, in all the events we participate in, Costa Rica stands out for having full agendas with very good business, so we hope that this will not be the exception.
It should be noted that they are present and with a large delegation at an event where not all destinations in the region have come...
Yes, we are surprised that other destinations in Central America and Latin America are not coming, because the region needs to stand out.
We may not participate in all events, but I believe that we are present at the most important ones, and almost always those where much more business can be done.
On the other hand, Europe is very important to you.
Yes. It should be noted that the main market in Leisure and MICE is always the USA and Canada, but Europe is also important because destinations such as Spain, England and Germany stand out in the MICE part.
What are the most important destinations for the MICE segment in Costa Rica?
San José, the capital, is for associative groups, events, congresses and incentives. Guanacaste and the Central Pacific are also relevant. Guanacaste is highly recommended for any type of tourism or rather for taking incentive groups with the great advantage that there are no hurricanes in our country, so due to weather issues there is no risk of cancelling any group.
They've gained connectivity this year, right?
Of course, we have already recovered all the flights we had in 2019 and we have surpassed the level of connectivity. We already have Gol from Brazil, we also have new connections from Mexico and we connect from different places; like the USA of course, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
In Europe we also have Lufthansa, KLM and British Airways. There are a lot of airlines serving Costa Rica and also specifically Guanacaste for the MICE part.
This year is coming to an end for MICE, what feeling does 2024 leave you with?
A super good feeling, the truth is that we have recovered a lot. We have huge expectations to grow even more in 2025, since we will have Fiexpo in Costa Rica, so we will receive a large number of entrepreneurs, buyers and sellers in our country, generating much faster growth.