HND Travel & Tourism: Contemporary Issues in Costa Rica

This report provides an overview of the tourism sector in Costa Rica, highlighting its rapid economic growth and status as a major foreign exchange earner. It identifies key issues facing the industry, including environmental damage and the impact on local communities due to tourism policies and infrastructure development. The report examines the negative impacts of tourism on the social and environmental aspects of the region, such as restricted access for local inhabitants and pollution affecting biodiversity. It also discusses the major attractions of Costa Rica, including national parks, reserves, and unique geographical features like volcanoes. Visitor statistics and emerging trends are analyzed, demonstrating the increasing number of tourist visits and the contribution of the tourism industry to Costa Rica's GDP and employment. The report also mentions the operation of a major airline firm in the UK with services to Costa Rica, providing insights into the broader context of international tourism.

Running head: TOURISM
Tourism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
Costa Rica being a central American country with coastlines along the Caribbean and the
Pacific areas forms quite an interesting option for the flourishing of the tourism sector in the
country. It is in fact one of the countries where the tourism sector is growing at a rapid economic
growth rate. It is in fact considered to be the highest contributor in terms of foreign exchange
earnings in the country. The massive increase in the tourism sector earnings increased since the
year 1987.Because of the presence of a large number of preserved areas and national parks, this
region has become one of the biggest natural tourism spots. The country is also equally rich in
biodiversity and houses a variety of plants and animals within the geographical borders. Costa
Rica is also know for many other geographical features including volcanoes, which are generally
not found in most natural tourist destination spots. In other words it is one of the biggest
international tourist spots in the world. There are many issues however facing this industry in the
current time. These issues are basically based on the fact that some major tourism policies and
events are harming the environment of the area and affecting the biodiversity of the region. This
is why firms are increasingly trying to take up initiatives that will help in mitigating these
already existing problems. These problems generally arise from the construction of high rise
buildings in the form of hotels or other tourism infrastructure.
Task 1:
This section of the report focuses on some of the issues that the tourism sector in Costa
Rica imposes on the communities and the biodiversity of this area. The negative impacts of the
tourism sector on the social and the environmental aspects of the region are discussed in details.

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Although, the tourism sector of Costa Rica has contributed vehemently to the gross domestic
product generation, it has happened at the cost of the local inhabitants of the region being
restricted from gaining access to regions earlier inhabited by them. Moreover, the environmental
impacts have also been widespread covering both the land and the ocean areas thus affecting the
species of both these regions.
Issues Facing Tourism Industry in Costa Rica
Issue 1:
There are various issues which are faced by Costa Rica as a result of the tourism most of
which are based on the notions of the nature and the environment of the place being adversely
affected. There are other issues facing the tourism industry in this region including the local
communities of the are being harmed and the diversity being lost (U.S. 2018). Thus, there exists
a paradoxical situation in the region pertaining to the impacts of the tourism industry in Costa
Rica. Reports and articles suggest that the level of eco-tourism that was once prevalent in the
region. The coasts and the beaches are increasingly being inhabited and structures or buildings
for the tourism purposes are being built. This in turn is causing the beaches to corrode which in
turn is harming the reputation of the region as being one of the regions full of biodiversity. The
tourism is also known to have impacts on the social and cultural aspects of the region (Hunt et al.
2015). This is so because foreigners are increasingly migrating to this region and building resorts
and other tourism related infrastructure, which is impacting the upholding of the traditional
social integrity of the place. It is also reported that not only the land and the society but also the
water of this region is being polluted immensely due to causes related to tourism (Mowforth and
Munt 2015). This includes the enormous number and frequency of cruises bringing in and taking

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back passengers as well as the different types of tourist attractive activities carried out in the
waters surrounding this region.
Issue 2:
The impact on the environment has been immense and is actually stringent. This is
proven from the fact that the increase in the amount of tourism in this region has adversely
impacted various species like the leatherback turtles. These turtles are affected due to the light
pollution caused by the tourism activities and initiatives that take place at the beaches and costs
of the region where they used to thrive and breed. There has also been a lot of construction in the
last few years that has contributed to the increase in income for this sector and hence the
generation of employment. However, this has led to the disruption of the sewage systems in
these areas where the same sewage has leaked into the oceans causing substantial levels of water
pollution which in turn has had harmed the natural ecosystem of the oceans of the region
(Blackman et al. 2017). All of these factors might soon cause the downfall of the rank of the
region as a naturally vibrant region for tourism. This increase in the number of constructions is
occurring because of the lack of proper rules and regulations on which the infrastructure and
construction should be based.
Measures to be Taken
Moreover, as has been mentioned before, the development of the place based on the
revenue generated has come at the cost of the cultures not being preserved in this area. Even
though the number of people who live in the rural areas is small, their livelihood is being greatly
affected in a negative way due to the influx of foreigners who are generally not able to recruit
these people because of the lack of the appropriate skills needed. There are privatised beaches in

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Costa Rica which are taking away the livelihood of the aboriginals of the region. To avoid this
consequence the privatisation of beaches should be boycotted and the hotels and resorts which do
not employ the aboriginal population of the region should not be considered for tourist’s
residential purposes. Steps should also be taken so that the local communities are increasingly
able to access the beaches and the costs which have already been privatised.
Task 2:
This portion of the report deals with the major issues existing in the region of Costa Rica
and how the same can be avoided. This portion of the report also deals with the trends in the
tourism industry in Costa Rica in terms of the number of tourist visitors over the past few years
and the number of international visitors in this region. Costa Rica is the most visited region in
Central America. The major attractions of this tourist destination and the developments in this
particular industry are also discussed in detail.
Major Attractions:
The major attractions of Costa Rica as a tourist region include a number of national parks
and reserves. It also includes natural attractions which are rare to find like volcanoes. There are
around twenty six national parks in the region and twenty five percentage of the total land area in
Costa Rica. The country has a number of policies and regulations in place to cater to the needs of
conserving and protecting these national parks and environment tally rich areas (Jiménez et al.
2017). Costa Rica houses some of the best beaches as well being situated along the Caribbean
and Pacific coasts. The most important and well known national park in this region is Manuel
Antonio National Park and it was listed in Forbes list of twelve most beautiful beaches in the
world. Barbilla National Park, Barra Honda National Park, Cahuita National Park, Carrara

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National Park, Diria National Park, Irazu Volcano National Park and so on. Puerto Viejo de
Talamanca, Manzanillo Beach, Tamarindo Beach, Gandoca Beach, Montezuma Beach, and
Zancudo Beach are similarly some of the best beaches in Costa Rica. Further, there are seven
tourist spots in Costa Rica which are considered to be the seven wonders in this place. These
include Cocos Island, Poas Volcano, Monteverde Reserve, Tortuguero Canals, Celeste River,
Chirripo Mountain and Arenal Volcano. In the year 2009, around a total of 1.2 million tourists
visited the national parks and biodiversity reserves of Costa Rica. Reports state that since the
year 2003 most of the tourists who visited this area were found to be foreign tourists. Because of
the presence of this substantially vast area of natural beauty and rich biodiversity, Costa Rica
was declared to be one of the world’s top ten ethical travel destinations. Even the parks inside the
region are properly guided with paths that make spotting and locating the wildlife easy and more
accessible than most other regions in the world. Various activities and events add to the
attractiveness of Costa Rica as a tourist destination.
Visitor Statistics: Emerging Trends
The number of tourist visits in this region has been increasing an an exponential rate and
this in turn has fueled the increase in the revenue generation from this industry. This in turn has
increased the total amount of GDP generated by Costa Rica. This is demonstrated in the
following table. The data in the table demonstrates rise in the number of tourists and hence the
growth of the tourism industry in Costa Rica over a period of six years from 2003 to 2008
(Costarica-information.com. 2018). Even though there have been some fluctuations in the
numbers, the average rate of growth has been primarily high.

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Table 1: Increase in Number of Tourists in Costa Rica
Source: Costarica-information.com. (2018)
Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the total number of visitors in Costa Rica is composed
primarily of international tourist visitors and the same is demonstrated in the following graph.

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Figure 1: International Tourist Arrivals
Source: Ipfs.io. (2018)
Figure 1: Tourism Expenses
(Source: Ipfs.io. 2018)

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This graph portrays data for a period of around twenty eight years starting from 1988
until 2015. As is demonstrated by this graph, the number of international tourist visits have
increased every year compared to the previous year except for a few years like 2009 and 2002
(Ipfs.io. 2018). This itself shows how the region has developed the industry at a progressive rate
and is now one of the leading sectors in Costa Rica (Vanegas Sr, Gartner and Senauer 2015).
Reports suggest that the ports of Costa Rica contribute to the largest number of international
tourist influx through the means of cruise. Reports and studies also assert that the duration of
stay of the visitors also increased with time over the years.
Tourism Statistics:
Figure 3: Contribution to GDP
(Source: ttc.org. 2018)

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Figure 4: Medical Tourism
(Source: ttc.org. 2018)
The above graph portrays the total contribution to GDP by the Costa Rican tourism and
travel industry and also shows the estimates for the year 2027 (ttc.org. 2018). The data
represented is for a period of ten years and again some fluctuations are noticed but on the whole
there is an increase in the total amount o contribution to the Gross Domestic Product which is
why the estimates for the year 2027 are as high as shown in the graph.
The contribution to the total amount of employment in the economy of Costa Rica has
also been high with all the effects and impacts of the industry combined. The total amount of
investment and the effects of supply chain has contributed immensely to the total percentage of
employment generation.

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Figure 3: Contribution to GDP
Source: ttc.org. (2018)
This graph demonstrates the contribution to the total employment generation with the
help of the tourism industry in different ways in Costa Rica. It is reported that in the year 2016
the total number of job creation with respect to this sector was 271,000 with 12.9% of total
employment generation (ttc.org. 2018).
Task 3 and 4:
This portion of the report deals with the operations and functioning of a major Airlines
firm in UK. The firm chosen extends services all around the world including Costa Rica. In this
case, we consider the This section also provides insights into the strategies and customer
profiling of Virgin Atlantic along with the products and services offered by the firm. The

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background of the firm along with the destinations it provides services to and the base of the
airline firm are also mentioned in the sub sequent sections of this part of the report.
Virgin Atlantic Background and Destinations Travelled
Virgin Atlantic, which is one of the leading aviation firms in the United Kingdom and
provides cheap and some of the best quality flights to various tourist destinations in the United
States including Costa Rica. Virgin Atlantic is the business name for Virgin Atlantic Airways
Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited which is based out of Britain and has its
headquarters situated in Crawley, United Kingdom (Virginatlantic.com. 2018). It was established
long back in the year 1984. The firm is popularly known for using a combination of both Airbus
and Boeing aircrafts and the most widely travelled destinations of the firm include North
America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The major base destinations of the
firm include London and Manchester. There are two additional bases which are Glasgow and
Belfast. Particularly the fights of Virgin Atlantic that travel to Costa Rica are known for the
quality along with the cheap rates (Virgin. 2018). The frequency of the flights to Costa Rica
provided by Virgin Atlantic is such that there is twenty four seven availability of these flights
which makes the travel to this region in case of a sudden plan or an emergency easy to operate
and execute. The total number of destinations that this firm provides flights are thirty and they
have also opened up another operational office in Sussex, England (Virginatlantic.com. 2018).
The various growth and operational strategies used by the firm makes it one of the most
successful aviation firms in the world and some of these strategies are discussed and evaluated
below.
Strategies of Virgin Atlantic