Economy & Business - August 2025

COSTA RICA | Costa Rica posts drop in tourism. On 15 July Costa Rica’s tourism institute (ICT) released new figures showing that 1.49m tourists flew into the country in the first six months of 2025, down 2.8% on the same period in 2024. Tourism Minister William Rodríguez attributed the drop to the global context of economic uncertainty and geopolitical conflicts. He said however that the ICT was projecting that the year would close with between 2.66m and 2.87m tourists visiting the country via air, representing a 1.7% increase. He said that these hopes for recovery were based on the fact that 13 new air routes would be operating in the second half of the year as well as plans for record investment (over US$43m) by the ICT to promote Costa Rica as a tourism destination to key markets.