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Despite the international crisis and a noticeable decrease in tourist influx, Costa Rica is still ranked among the top preferred tourist destinations.

During the first semester of 2008, tourist arrivals showed an impressive increase of a 13% in comparison to the first semester in 2007.  However, the second semester of the current year has shown a gradual decrease in tourist arrivals when compared to last year.  The Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste has reflected a decrease in 3.3% for the month of June when compared to last year and a 1.9% when compared to July last year.

The numbers reflect the amount of tourists who have entered the country via air travel and although there has been an impressive overall increase of 102, 141 more tourists than last year, it has slowly started to decrease.

However, when compared to other important tourist destinations in the Central America and Caribbean region, Costa Rica still shows a steady position among the top preferred tourist destinations.  The country of Belize shows a negative tourist influx -1.9% while Mexico shows a 2.3%, Argentina 5.4%, Guatemala 6.3%, Nicaragua 7.1%,  Panama a whopping 24% while Costa Rica maintains a 15.36%.

The Costa Rican Chamber of Tourism estimates that if this behavior continues during the following months, the year will close with an approximate 7.5% to 9.5% tourist influx increase when compared to 2007.  The Chamber points to a series of international variables and factors that not only affect the country’s internal economy but the traveler’s decisions as well.

Some of these factors which have taken its toll on tourism are the reduction of flight schedules, fuel price increase and the economic recession in the United States.