In the recent months several cases of fraud with promotional tour packages have been reported, and this has raised the alert of the consumer protection authorities in Costa Rica that will be performing stricter controls of companies that offer tourism services.

In the past two years the National Consumer Commission has received at least 641 legal complaints, including breach of contract and fraud; 563 of this cases involve tourism services while 78 of them involve companies offering travel packages on a payment plan.

The goal is to enforce Law 7472 (Consumer Protection Law) and eliminate abusive practices of companies in this industry; the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) and the Costa Rica Tourism Board have detected companies that are operating and offering services without being duly registered or having the necessary requirements.

False advertising and commercial fraud are some of the practices that have been detected among tourism companies; a recent case made the news earlier this year when a group of close to 300 Costa Ricans that were supposed to be traveling to Mexico to witness a soccer game were stranded at the Juan Santamaría Airport because their charter plane had not been paid. The group had purchased a travel package that included the place ticket, accommodations, tours in Mexico City and tickets to the game, through travel agency “Continental Travels”.

The Costa Rica Tourism Board will be including more controls and be more strict when giving the “tourism declaration” to a business, which is a recognition given to companies in the tourism sector following their compliance with technical, economic and legal requirements.

Measures include education campaigns for the consumers through different channels; the campaigns provide information on consumer rights and urge them to report illegal situations.