Costa Rica receives four outstanding marketing awards at the HSMAI ADRIAN AWARDS 2025

Costa Rica was awarded four prizes at the 2025 Adrian Awards, considered the “Oscars” of travel, hospitality and tourist destination marketing. The awards obtained were of the highest distinction, specifically the “Platinum” trophies (the most important of the awards) and “Gold” in the brand category for the implementation and execution of the integrated marketing strategy “More Essential Than Ever” developed by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute in the 2024 period.

Two additional awards were also received: Gold in the Influencer Marketing category for the production and concept of “Wellness Week: Transformational Journeys” and a Silver award in the Corporate Social Responsibility category for the “Leave No Trace” sustainability campaign developed with the Matador Network platform.

The awards were presented at the 68th annual Adrian Awards 2025, organized by the Hospitality, Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI). The awards ceremony took place at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel, located in the heart of Times Square, a major showcase for global advertising and marketing trends.

“In 2024, we launched a comprehensive marketing campaign in the United States. We approached strategic partners such as Amazon, Volta, and Whole Foods, with the goal of reaching our audiences and a specific market segment in a more strategic way, showing on multiple channels what Costa Rica is and how it is possible to enjoy its multiple products,” said Carolina Trejos, marketing director of the ICT, after receiving the awards. Trejos added that “This joint and innovative effort allowed us to obtain outstanding awards from the communications and advertising industry, especially in the categories of hospitality and tourist destinations. It is a very relevant award and shows that the strategy used to promote our country to the most important market is first-class. What we always seek is to strengthen the positioning of Costa Rica as a tourist destination that generates unique experiences,” she concluded.

According to the organizers, this edition of the Adrian Awards 2025, had approximately 1,200 entries and the cases were evaluated by a panel of communication experts, highlighting outstanding campaigns and strategies in advertising, digital marketing, public relations and integrated campaigns.

A strategy “more essential than ever”
As part of the registration and participation process for these renowned awards, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute together with its advertising and marketing agency MMGY Global, presented the candidacy with an audiovisual that summarized as a success story the main achievements of the integrated marketing strategy “More essential than ever” that included audiovisuals, content on social networks, strategic alliances and massive events, capable of enticing potential North American travelers to fall in love with Costa Rica.

In addition, the strategy included alliances with renowned business partners such as Amazon and Whole Foods supermarkets - which are similar to Costa Rica in aspects such as sustainability and the promotion of healthy lifestyles - with the distribution of more than 1 million paper bags for shopping orders, decorated with images of biodiversity, which could be painted and reused in multiple ways. At the same time, charging totems were enabled in electric vehicles thanks to the alliance with the company Volta, as well as a rich digital campaign with short audiovisuals that complemented these actions carried out in cities in the United States and Canada such as Houston, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton. Other promotional actions stood out, such as in-person events to promote well-being such as multitudinous yoga classes such as Yoga in the Park in New York and Yoga in The Rocks in Denver Colorado.

All actions generated more than 80 million impressions in paid media and 7.6 billion impressions, between activations and the presence obtained in the media thanks to the actions carried out, understanding “impressions” as the number of times that content is shown to a user of a digital platform. According to the most recent data from the ICT, during the year 2024, a total of 1,587,138 American tourists visited Costa Rica by air, registering a growth of 10.3%, consolidating the United States as the main tourist-sending market. Canada was in second place with the arrival of 257,395 travelers by the same route and an increase of 5.9%.

Source: ICT.