Up to September 2007 , 1,216,345 visitors came into the country, which was an increase of 123,533 tourists more than last year for the same period.

    These estimates were supplied by the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), based on reports of arrivals at the Juan Santamaría International Airport, located in the province of Alajuela, and at the terminal of the Daniel Oduber International Airport, located in the city of Liberia, in the province of Guanacaste.

     According to the report, the months of March, January, and July were the months with the highest activity.

   The estimates showed that in March 163,433 tourists entered the country, in January 149,878 visitors arrived and in the month of July 145,455 tourists visited Costa Rica.

   These estimates only include those tourists who came into the country by air, which represents 78% of tourists that enter the country by that means.

     Canatur estimated the total amount of visitors to the country at 1.5 million for the first nine months of the year including the arrival of tourists who entered by sea.

    In 2007, the cruise ship season were much more active, as a result of the 138 cruise ships that  arrivied at the ports, with a plus of 11 ships compared to 2006 season. This represents a growth of 8.6%.

     As for the province of Puntarenas, Miguel Rena, President of the Chamber of Tourism in Puntarenas, stated that they are expecting to receive 180,000 tourists, which will generate approximately 2,300 million colons.

     The President of the Chamber of Tourism of Limon, Noel Ferguson, stated that in the case of Limon, at least 200,000 people are expected, including tourists and crewmembers.

JUAN SANTAMARÍA AIR TRAFFIC INCREASED BY 30% IN AUGUST 2007

    The air traffic of the International Juan Santamaría Airport  increased by 30% in August 2007, in relation to the same month of last year, according to the statistics of the company Alterra.

     In August 2007, the number of incoming and outgoing flights increased to 282,572, while in the same period of 2006, there were 216,037. This shows an increase of 66,535 additional flights.

     The numbers show a significant increase compared to the trend of previous months. As a matter of fact, the inter-annual growth up to June in the traffic of flights was 18, 4%.

     According to the report of the Head Office of Civil Aviation, Taca is the company that shows a greater increase in the number of flights in August of 2007, with 24,2%, followed by Iberia with 24% and Delta with 17,2%.