#Avianca announces increase in flights between #CostaRica and other destinations │ #costadevelopers

A few months ago TACA announced the cancellation of several of its direct flights between cities in America and Costa Rica, other airlines seek to solve gaps that these left.

From next two November, Avianca will be daily flights between El Salvador and Costa Rica, both to and from. Flights will also increase and from Bogotá, Colombia.

According to the airline, these new flights allow the company to strengthen connectivity with only a scale to more than 40 cities in America and Madrid, Spain.

Avianca recently also announced the change of the image of their aircraft, in Bogotá, Colombia in recent days.

For flights from and to El Salvador will have a total of 60 weekly, these will be implemented gradually during these next six months of the year 2013.

According to the Director of communications of Avianca, Claudia Arenas "travelers across the network of routes, may benefit the strengthening of El Salvador connection Center, which in turn will result in more schedule options, greater availability of chairs and an improvement in attention".

For flights between El Salvador and Costa Rica, from November 2 will have a frequency of 56 flights per week, previously there were 42, this represents 14 flights increased more.

Additionally benefit will be visitors seeking an offer of flights from the United States. For example there will be two daily flights to New York, three daily flights to Los Angeles and Washington, two daily to Miami and Mexico; a direct connection to Belize, Houston, Orlando, Toronto and Havana.

Thanks to the frequency of 28 flights per week between Costa Rica and Bogotá, may offer a better connection from and to cities in South America, Santiago de Chile, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, La Paz, Quito, Guayaquil, and also Madrid, Spain.

Tourists planning to visit Costa Rica also enjoy direct flights from Caracas, Mexico, Miami, Tegucigalpa, Managua, Lima, Bogota, Guatemala and Panama.

Posted by Costa Developers

European tourists prefer to Costa Rica for tourism in the region

European tourists

Costa Rica receives more than 2 million tourists a year from all over the world.

According to data from the Central American promotion of Tourism Agency during the 2012 an approximately 248, 996 European tourists visited the country, which won first place in the region, followed by Guatemala with a number of little more than 172 000 visitors.

According to the institution, tourist arrivals grew by 16% in this region. According to the report, 717 833 European tourists traveled to the region in 2011, compared with the number that arrived in 2012 that was 832 576

Germany and the United Kingdom are the places where the tourists most often come from. People in Spain have the third place of the Europeans who visit Central America.

Spanish tourists are very important for Costa Rica. The Spanish airline Iberia recently increased flights between Madrid and San Jose a 6% to reach the 250 000 places, with daily flights between the two countries.

The European country also developed the platforms of the Madrid metro in showcases that promote tourism in Costa Rica and will remain there until the month of June.

In other neighboring countries e.g. in Nicaragua was recorded a growth of 6.6% of Spanish tourists and in Honduras, 4%.

In the Caribbean, Belize for example received in 2012 to a total of 1.02 million passengers, of which 29.362 were Europeans, especially Germans and French, whose markets recorded a growth of 8.1% and 5.7%, respectively.

The number of international arrivals to Nicaragua over 1.2 million, number representing an increase of 9.7%, and the European market registered 4.1% more tourists, mainly from Germany (9.3%) and France (7.2%).

In Panama, the number total visitors increased 4.1% in 2012 and that of Europeans was also higher, by registering 9.7% more tourists coming from the old continent El Salvador, according to data provided by the Ministry of tourism, it received more than 1.7 million tourists, 6.3% more than during 2011.

Posted by Costa Developers

Obama’s visit to Costa Rica went as expected

barack obama in costa rica

President Barack Obama is the fifth President to visit the country, the last visit it was the former President Bill Clinton

Barack Obama was in Costa Rica for 22 hours and arrived at Costa Rican soil to meet with Presidents members of SICA (Central American integration system) to discuss issues of security and especially of energy exchange.

Within the framework of the meeting of SICA, President Obama had the opportunity to lead a forum with Costa Rican entrepreneurs, Presidents of Central America and other participants.

The central theme of his visit revolved around the cooperation to promote the region clean energy generation. The Minister of environment and energy of Costa Rica, René Castro held a meeting with Carlos Pascual, Coordinator International Energy Affairs of United States.

"We want to help and see what practical things we have to do to advance in renewable energy," said Pascual in a press release from the Ministry of environment and energy.

Barack Obama also emphasized that Costa Rica has a chance of belonging to the Group of "rich" countries, to be a good candidate for admission to the OECD, although not be signature no agreement, verbally Obama pledged with support through their vote in Washington, so Costa Rica entering this group based in Paris.

"We will continue supporting Costa Rica so that it continues to expand its influence," said Obama in the press conference, standing two metres of Laura Chinchilla, who minutes later thanked her "express support".

The visit of Obama was guarded at all times by the secret service of the United States and the deployment of security officers provided by Costa Rica. While all passed in a timely and effective manner.

Barack Obama was very empathetic with the Costa Rican people who at all times tried to reach the President, his arrival and his departure was noted by many outside of the Juan Santa Maria International Airport.

Posted by Costa Developers

Costa Rican exports increase by 8.4 percent in first three quarters of 2012

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Most buyers of Tico exports are countries with free trade agreements with Costa Rica.

The value of Costa Rican exports increased by 8.4 percent in the first nine months of this year, totaling $8.5 billion, the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX)

Recent figures show consistent growth in exports of free-zone and agricultural products.

According to COMEX, countries with free trade agreements with Costa Rica account for 68 percent of Tico exports so far this year. Costa Rican exports to those countries increased by 8.9 percent in the first three quarters, from $5.2 billion during the same period in 2011 to $5.7 billion this year.

North America (the United States and Canada) is the main destination for Costa Rican exports, accounting for 42.5 percent of total exports (an 8.8 percent increase from 2011). Next is the European Union, with 18.1 percent (a 6.9 percent increase), Central America, with 14 percent (a 6.4 percent increase), and Asia, with 12.8 percent (a 24.6 percent increase).

Central Bank projections show the country is on track to meet – and likely surpass – this year’s export target, estimated at $15.8 billion in goods and services.

Posted by Costa Developers