Excelencias from the Caribbean & the Americas
Costa Rica. A Shrine for Wellness
“WE'LL CONTINUE POSITIONING OURSELVES AS A SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL DESTINATION, BY ADDING OTHER DIMENSIONS LINKED TO PEOPLE'S WELLBEING, BY SUPPORTING THE ENJOYMENT OF NATURE”, GUSTAVO SEGURA SANCHO, EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT OF THE COSTA RICAN TOURISM INSTITUTE, TOLD EXCELENCIAS
Gustavo J. Segura Sancho has been at the helm of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) for only a few months. However, he has a 23year career in the tourism industry under his belt, most of it as a hotel executive. "I have had the privilege, the honor, of being manager of very small, 14-room hotels in remote locations, and I have also managed six 300-room urban hotels, with their convention centers. It means then that I know the whole range of hospitality in Costa Rica".
This is what he tells Excelencias, a man who previously served as vice president of the Costa Rican Chamber of Hoteliers and, between 2010 and 2016, was part of the ICT Board of Directors (five of those six years serving a tenure as vice president). "The functioning of the tourism dynamic,” he emphasizes, “is no stranger to me at all.”
"A strength of our tourism industry is that there is a symbiosis, a harmony, between the public and private sectors, which has allowed us to take a line of sustainable development that goes beyond governments. If governments change, there is no turning back on the philosophy of the tourism development model that we want to put into practice in the country.”
From 2016 to date, Segura Sancho had returned to his functions in the private sector until he was called upon to lead -in the midst of the complex circumstance represented by the current pandemic- the executive seat of the ICT as a result of a regrettable health condition the beloved former minister María Amalia Ravelo started suffering from.
"After such an encouraging career, it is an honor to serve my country from this position. It is also a way to thank life, God and the sector for everything they have given me and to do my very best to move on an industry that has been a tool of social progress, aware that reactivating tourism is reactivating Costa Rica".
The former head of Tourism, María Amalia Revelo, began a strategy with the ICT to boost Costa Rica's strengths as a regional tourism powerhouse through ecology, the environment and respect for nature. What will happen next?
"The development model that Costa Rica chose is based on the protection of biodiversity: 26% of the national territory, which is only 51,000 square kilometers, is under some form of protection, either as national parks or private reserves in conservation. The interesting thing is that all of them, whether public or private, have infrastructure for tourist enjoyment. In other words, it is a conservation model focused on bringing well-being to people.
"In truth, instead of a model of massive tourism development, we always thought that growth would occur gradually. Back then, we couldn't even imagine that these times of pandemic would come and it turned out that what the world is appreciating much more now is the type of tourism that Costa Rica has built. I have no doubt that the world will turn its attention to a place where there are no large crowds, where people can live outdoor experiences that are very meaningful to them.
"We will continue to promote Costa Rica as a sustainable travel destination, but on the basis of that sustainability, we will add other dimensions, which were always there but we did not put across quite strongly, related to the well-being of people, supported by the enjoyment of nature.
"There are other characteristics that add strength to our model of growth and sustainability. The fact that we abolished the army in 1948 has meant that all those resources that otherwise would have been funneled into the armed forces, have been invested for 80 years in the universal education system (97% of the population has a literacy level) and a universal health system (public primary health care facilities are everywhere, which explains, for example, the 1% death rate in those who have been infected with SARSCOV-2). For this reason, even in the tourism compounds way too far from urban centers, you can find tourist collaborators with the capacity to implement complex operational protocols, whether they are gastronomy, adventure operations or health care to prevent the spread of the disease.
"Elements such as authentic gastronomy, with excellent standards
of quality and presentation, are also related to well-being. Costa Rica has continued on this path through a Sustainable Gastronomy Development Plan that is now ten years old and has greatly improved the gastronomy profile of tourism companies.
"And the same could be said of the cultural product. This is not a country with an overwhelming presence of ancestral indigenous cultures, like Peru and Mexico, but local indigenism is being put in value right now. All of the above and more lead to travelers coming to Costa Rica for an average of 12 nights and visiting four or five very different places.
As Costa Rica prepared to open its international borders, it began to implement different protocols and requirements for entry into the country. How have these protocols worked?
"Since closing its borders on March 18, Costa Rica has begun a process of developing prevention protocols with the engagement of the private sector. Sixteen were developed and approved by health authorities for each subsector: restaurants, hotels, adventure centers, casinos, coastal activities, meetings and conventions... Those of May and June were meant to be implemented, and then in July the reopening of economic activities for the national tourist took place.
"As of August 1, we began a gradual process of reopening international borders, starting with receiving members of the European Union (Schengen area) and citizens of the United Kingdom and Canada. In September, we decided to include other locations, like 21 U.S. states. It is planned that as of November 1, all of the borders will open.
"It's true that when we opened for Europe there was a second wave of the disease on that continent, which is why the traffic has not been great. The 5,500 tourists that entered between August and September, which are very few, allowed us, however, to carry out some kind of observation to determine whether the requirements we had implemented were actually working. None of them were reported as contagious, nor did we receive any reports of anyone having been infected with the virus on our soil, which shows that the protocols are working both in airports and in tourism facilities.
"This pilot scenario has allowed us to verify that international tourism is not a vector of disease spread, thanks to which we can now proceed, with greater dynamism, to the opening of borders, because the private sector is also proving to be very neat in the exhaustive implementation of prevention protocols.
Some travelers were struck by the high effective policy of international travel medical insurance that was required to enter the national territory...
"The issue of insurance including pandemic coverage has changed very rapidly in the world. When we started discussing these issues back in May, the vast majority of international insurance policies did not include it. Here a local company designed insurance for tourists that, with the reduced number of consumers in the country, was indeed very expensive in the first weeks. But during June and July, international insurance companies began to issue their own policies, at far more affordable prices and targeting pandemic coverage.
"So, we adapted to the possibility that people can present in a digital way, before their arrival to Costa Rica, an international insurance policy and what we need is to know that it can cover possible medical expenses in case of catching COVID-19, and that we have to extend the accommodation because of that. More than half of the tourists we have welcomed have done so with this international insurance. What's more, there is a local offer of this insurance that has been slashed in price at this time to an average of nine dollars a day.
This year it could not take place, but Costa Rica has attended, with its thermal water offers, the Termatalia International Fair. Can this be another niche for luring tourists to the country?
"Of course, José Carlos. Over the past 20 years, Costa Rica began to develop a very strong image based
A strength of our tourism industry is that there is a symbiosis, a harmony, between the public and private sectors, which has allowed us to take a line of sustainable development that goes beyond governments
on a niche: ecotourism, which was injected with the rest of the market segments of the country, which was coined and tagged with the word sustainability. Today, you can find principles of sustainable tourism in San José hotels, Convention Centers, adventure companies... virtually everywhere, since it has to do with the use of clean energy, recyclable or biodegradable materials and the application of a long list of parameters that allow for the granting of a certification in the country.
"There are certain niche markets that are very specific to wellness, to well-being, such as thermalism, tourism and health or a yoga retreat for a week. From those specific niches, principles are drawn, principles that can impregnate all the others. That's why we are coining the phrase Sanctuary of Wellness for the whole country. We are moving towards that point now, which will allow us to have a more robust industry, based on biodiversity but also on well-being, making a conjunction to give it a differentiating touch with the sight set on the years to come.
Costa Rica has an excellent Conference Center where the most important events in the country have taken place, such as the local Tourism Fair.
"We are living a moment that is undoubtedly challenging, but the challenges have encouraged the creativity of our tourism entrepreneurs. Here we have adopted the hybrid event platform that is being implemented with remarkable success and work as follows: physical presence of a maximum of people, and simultaneous participation of thousands attendees through technology, from different places. This year's Expotur 2020, the tourism fair, has been organized mainly in a virtual way, from November 16 to 21". ●