The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) had already made clear in the past months its interest in attracting more tourists from Europe, and as part of this strategy the government has managed to connect the country with different European countries through eight new direct flights (commercial and charter).

British Airways and Thompson Airways; Air France; Lufthansa and Condor; Edelweiss, KLM and Iberia now offer services between Costa Rica and England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and Spain respectively.

Apparently within the next 12 to 18 months more airlines will be starting operations in the country, among them Air Europe, Wamos and Turkish Airlines, according to information by Aeroinfo.

The growth of European tourists in the first four months of this 2017 in comparison to the same period of 2013 was of 56% going from 118 thousand to 184 thousand. The majority of the European tourists come from Germany.

As part of the plan to get the most potential out of this market the ICT carried out a market study to determine the best prospects in Europe and elaborate a profile of the type of tourist that would visit the country and their interests with the purpose of creating more precise and efficient marketing strategies.

PR and publicity companies have already been hired in Spain, Germany, England and France with the goal of generating content and information directed to the target market.

ICT has also participated in different fairs in Europe and has reached agreements with airlines such as Iberia so that the Spanish company promotes Costa Rica as a destination for the Italian market.

The idea is for the country not to depend so much on visitors coming from the United States.

European travelers stay for longer periods of time due to the distance and they tend to spend more money.

The elimination of paper forms in the airport and other renovations in the Juan Santamaría and Liberia airports hope to also provide a better service to all tourists.