Big Growth in Air Traffic to Costa Rica's Liberia Airport

The sun, the beaches, the rainforests, the delicious coffee…these things and more continue to draw visitors to Costa Rica. In the first half of this year, arrival statistics showed a 6.42% increase in the number of foreigners arriving here, with the bulk of that increase felt at the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste.

This promising coastal region has attracted the likes of Mel Gibson, Steve Case and Sol Kerzner, and even Saudi royalty. The increase surpassed the tourism sector's projection of 5% growth for the year, said Gonzalo Vargas, President of the National Tourism Chamber.

"I attribute the increase to the efforts of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute to incorporate more flights and more seats on the planes. The arrival of new airlines like Spirit, Air Comet and First Choice have been important, as has the frequency of Iberia," Vargas said.

International flights to Costa Rica have risen 37% since last year, from 1,380 monthly flights to 1,888. Those flights brought 832,604 foreign tourists into Costa Rica in the first six months of this year, an increase of more than 50,000 over the same period in 2006.

In the first half of this year, 237,199 of the total foreign tourist arrivals came through Liberia, representing a growth of 15.7% over last year. Though the Juan Santamaría International Airport, just outside of San José, continues to receive more overall passengers (it received 595,405 foreign tourists in the first six months of 2007), its growth for the first half of 2007 registers at just 3.1% over the same period last year.

With tourism and real estate continuing to boom in the northwest province of Guanacaste, particularly along the coastline, the Liberia airport is struggling to keep pace. A new, $15-million terminal is planned to ease the strain on the airport, which is widely viewed as woefully inadequate considering its volume of passengers.

Your Latin America Insider,

Suzan Haskins
for International Living

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