The Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo and the Vice-Minister of Public Security Eduardo Solano, held a press conference this Friday, August 10, to announce some of the measures that will be carried out in the topic of tourist safety and security.

Yesterday, the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, informed that during his administration $1 million USD a year from the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) will be destined to tourist security in alliance with the Ministry of Public Security; in the press conference today this commitment was reaffirmed and Revelo explained that the National Commission of Touristic Security (CONSETUR) will be in charge of creating the investment plan for this funds; the CONSETUR is formed by members of the Ministry of Public Security, the Judiciary Investigative Police, the Attorney General, ICT and representatives of the United States Embassy , the National Tourism Chamber (CANATUR) and the Guanacaste Tourism Chamber (CATURGUA).

The actions by the Government come after the tragic killing of two tourists (both women) this past weekend. One of the tourists was Mexican and was killed in Santa Teresa apparently as a result of a robbery; the second one was a Spanish woman that was strangled and apparently sexually assaulted in Tortuguero.
Some of the measures announced are:

Creation of a new app: ICT is working on the creation of a free technological tool that is expected to be ready by December and that has the objective of offering tourists useful safety tips as well as suggestions of places to visit and itineraries. ‘In future stages it will also offer information on dangerous rip currents in each beach and alerts generated by other users”, commented Revelo.

Prevention: ICT will train a group of 2000 people in the tourism sector in the next six months to allow them to incorporate prevention strategies in their businesses and in their communities. “The goal is to double this number by the end of 2019”, stated the Minister of Tourism.

Tourism Police: The Vice-Minister of Security informed that the tourism police will be getting additional personnel and will be carrying out operations in the areas of higher tourism concentration.

In addition to the above, the government will be launching a campaign with the purpose of reminding the general population that security is a matter that concerns us all and we should all contribute to it.