The Costa Rican Tourism Model

The Benefits of the Costa Rican Tourism Model vs. Sun and Beach Mass Tourism

According to INCAE Business School Professor Lawrence Pratt, the Costa Rican Tourism model is able to create more than 10 times more wealth for the local economy than the typical “beach and sun” destinations such as Cancun, the Spanish Riviera or parts of the Dominican Republic.  Why is this?  And what is the Costa Rican model?  Traditionally, visitors to Costa Rica stay in three to four different hotels and travel all over the country.  From Manuel Antonio to the Osa Peninsula to Arenal to Guanacaste, etc.  On their way, they spend money.  Most visitors book their trips directly with the small hotels, rent a car or use public transport.  If you book a vacation to Cancun or the Dominican Republic, most likely, you will get picked up at the airport by a hotel bus and spend your week inside the walls of an all-inclusive resort.  You might go on an excursion, but most likely with a hotel bus on a hotel operated tour.

So it is not surprising that the beach and sun model only leaves about 10% distributed in the country while the Costa Rican model allows for over 40% to stay.  Furthermore, the sustainable and eco-tourism that Costa Rica attracts has  multiplier of 2 to 3 times that of beach and sun tourism.  That means that the money that stays in the country gets distributed within the country 2 to 3 times more.  We think that we have something very special here and should make sure we don’t fall into the trap of copying the sun and beach mass tourism model of other countries. What do you think?  Which model would you like to support?

 

Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality is a world leader in sustainable hospitality management.  We manage and market hotels, resorts, eco lodges and Haciendas in Costa Rica and Nicaragua with a focus on high end experiences and sustainability. 

Cornell Seminar on June 15th

Looking to the Future:  Innovation and Competitors

Trends in Consumers and Communication

On June 15th, The Cornell Hotel School's Senior Lecturer, Jan H. Katz, will be a guest speaker at a Seminar held at Hotel Real Intercontinental, Escazu.  Her primary research focus is the impact of national culture, politics, and economic systems on behaviors and choices, the management of multinational corporations, business based national development strategies.

Professor Katz had been doing some interesting research in the area of changing trends in the travel industry (e.g. rising interest in "authentic experiences", increases in niche travelers). Her current research is a survey of hoteliers' opinions about the strength of the hospitality industry in their country (e.g. level of growth or decline expected, changes in type of tourist) and also views of what is hindering and/or encouraging growth. Professor Katz is trying to get a "pulse" of international markets and understand where people think it is going and why. In her classes, she focuses on how a company takes a product or service that is now in one country and expands it around the world. Examples include Louis Vuitton in India, shopping centers & malls in Brazil, or creating luxury developments by linking luxury malls with elite hotels in Central America as the Poma family has done.

Additional Guest Speakers include:

Mr. Fernando Poma- Grupo Roble: Key to Successful Hotel Development after the Financial and Economic Crisis. 

Mr. José Cortés- President Destinos TV: Alternative Successful Strategies during a time of Crisis.

Mr. Pascal Forotti- Four Seasons General Manager:  Experiences of the Financial Crisis / Operations and Marketing Strategies for the Future.

Cayuga's Leaves of Excellence Program

At Cayuga, we offer the teams at the properties we manage a program called "Leaves of Excellence".  This program aims to recognize the extraordinary efforts of those team members seeking to go beyond their duties, and to encourage such attitudes of all employees of our teams, with the aim of creating high performance and happy teams. 

Recognition and prizes (cash, tours, spa services) are awarded to those team members who go above and beyond their responsibilities to help other team members and provide exceptional service to our guests.

Bill Clinton, Marina Silva and Gross National Happiness

In the 2^nd symposium on Sustainability and Happiness that was held in San Jose, Costa Rica on May 8^th and 9^th 2012, we were honored to hear words from Brazil’s former environment minister Marina Silva as well as former US president Bill Clinton.  Marina Silva’s message was very much from the heart and she made a pledge to solve the crisis of values.  Bill Clinton shared very moving stories from his foundation work all over the world and encouraged Costa Ricans to continue to build upon a green economy.  There are few countries in the world that produce more than 90 percent of electricity with renewable energy and he proposed we bring more green technologies or production to Costa Rica such as the building of green cars or production of wind turbine parts. 

Earlier in the day, we enjoyed a presentation given by Lhaba Tshering from Bhutan http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com/ about the concept of Gross National Happiness.  Bhutan does not measure its success as a country as many developed countries in Gross National Product.  Interesting approach.  Interesting concept.  We are looking for ways how to measure Gross Operating Happiness at our hotels in the next months.  Ideas always welcome.  Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to visit Bhutan some day.  The owner of Latitude 10 in SantaTeresa tells us that it is one of the most amazing countries he has visited.  Have you been there?  What has been your experience.  Would love to hear from you.  hans@cayugaonline.com 

A leader in ecotourism, Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality manages luxury and boutique hotels in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Cayuga Success Story in Nosara

This is Yuli.  She is 25 years old, a native from Nosara and the head of our kitchen at the Harmony Hotel in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.  She is not a trained chef.  But she is an incredible professional.  The food at Harmony is spectacular.  She has been working very closely with Cayuga’s Culinary Director Jose Lopez and with some direction from Farmer T (a good friend of the owners of the Harmony Hotel), we have created a fresh, healthy local menu.  

Yuli is a Cayuga success story.  Instead of hiring chefs and moving them to remote places, we spend our efforts in training locals.  This is a model we have been practicing with great success for over 10 years now.  Of course there are setbacks and it requires a lot of patience, but when we see Yuli perform at the highest levels and grow more into her full potential every day , it makes us so happy and proud.  

Creating exceptional family travel experiences, Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality manages family friendly hotels in Costa Rica.