A plane crash, several tourist murders, robberies and a rafting accident, are just part of the tragic events involving tourists that stained Costa Rica’s reputation as a safe tourism destination last year and that forced authorities in the country to evaluate security and procedures to protect visitors. After all, tourism is the country’s main economic activity.

Gianfranco Pescosolido, an Italian expat was murdered in La Sabana Park as a result of a failed robbery mid-December, Carla Stefaniak a Venezuelan-American was murdered in an AirBnB in Escazu, the body of Thomas J. Cook a U.S. expat who went missing Jacó, turned up in Limón, an Argentinian tourist reported being the victim of rape in Samara, Guanacaste while a Canadian 19-year-old was also the victim of robbery and rape by a man that offered her a ride; a Spanish tourist was raped and killed in Tortuguero; a Mexican woman was murdered in Santa Teresa; a Canadian man, James Hogg went missing in Quepos, a US expat and sports book owner William Sean Creighton (Also known as 5 Dimes Tony) was kidnapped, all these violent crimes took place in 2018 in Costa Rica.

In addition to this a December 31st, 2017 domestic aircraft (Nature Air) crashed leaving 10 American tourists dead, while 4 died in a careless rafting accident in October 2018. Many others were the victims of theft and robberies in different areas of the country.

Accidents can happen anywhere in the world, and crime is a reality in every country, however, for a country like Costa Rica, 2018 was a particularly bad year for its reputation as a peaceful and safe country.

Add to this the labor strike that caused problems for many tourists and left sad images of violence on the streets.

Tourism is the country’s most important economic activity, for the past years the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) has worked hard on attracting new airlines and targeting different markets. This year was a call of attention on the importance to invest in more information, security and preventive measures to protect visitors in the country.

The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, announced that during his administration $1 million dollars USD a year from the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) will be designated to tourist security in alliance with the Ministry of Public Security.

Tourism Chambers in the country have proposed that it should be ICT the institution in charge of granting licenses and overseeing tour companies instead of the local Municipalities.