Day 3

May 13, 2013

Well today wasn't much of a fun day. Today consisted of staying at the hotel and listening to lectures and learning about Costa Rica. We had four different guest speakers. Although we didn't get to do any fun activities, I did learn a bunch of interesting facts about Costa Rica.

Our first speaker, Mrs. Gibson, director of After-Care from CINDE, talked about direct investment and the impact it has on Costa Rica.  Foreign investment has a significant impact on the economy of Costa Rica. The country relies on other countries around the world (the United States being the most significant) to support their economy.  The unemployment rate in Costa Rica is 7.8%, which is the highest it has ever been, relating directly to the recession of the U.S. (which will be mentioned later).  As many would imagine, most of the workforce in Costa Rica can speak both Spanish and English. Children start learning English in kindergarten. The Costa Ricans will soon begin to focus their efforts on learning Portuguese because it is becoming increasingly important. In addition to learning multiple languages, Costa Ricans are also known for obtaining multiple degrees because the cost is very afforbable and typically covered by the government.

Our second speaker, Mr. Roberto, focused on the topic of tourism. It was interesting to learn that Costa Rica did not consider themselves a tourist destination until 1974.  Before 1974, there were only a few forests and volcanoes that would attract tourists. The tourists would stay in Costa Rica for only approximately 2.3 days and only 5 tours were necessary to see what they came to see. The process that led to the success of tourism was that tourist discovered the destination area, articles from journalist were in high demand and became published, people from around the world began to follow the articles and learned about the destination, and finally, the country saw the opportunity to build onto the beautiful scenery.  Something unique about Costa Rica in comparison to other countries is that they started developing from the center to the coast. Central Valley was developed first, followed by the coast because the climate in the valley was more favorable than the coast, unlike other places. Although tourism does provide most of the country's revenue, they must be cautious. There have been 11 recessions since 1990, which directly affect the number of tourists entering the country. When the U.S. economy is affected, Costa Rica's economy is also affected since most of the tourists travel from the U.S.  In regards to the latest recession, Costa Erica's economy would have still decreased regardless of what happened in the states because of over-building from the projected amount of revenue from tourists.

Our third speaker was from the governmental office dedicated to promoting investments, and he talked about marketing strategies in the area. Here in Costa Rica, several companies work together when marketing their products. Although all of the companies might advertise their products as one, each company is still individually structured. The four main marketing sectors in Costa Rica are agricultural sector, food sector, industrial sector, and services secto. Each sector has a different market. For example, the health sector focuses mainly in the U.S. because the prices for medical procedures are significantly lower here than in the U.S.

As for our last speaker, Mr. Alberto Mora, was from a company called Estado de la Region. He talked about how Costa Rica compared to other countries in other central American countries. Much of their problems differ; however, one problem that ALL central American countries face is dealing with social security.

Fun facts:
Costa Rica is about the size of West Virginia.
Costa Rica has more birds than the U.S. and Canada combined!
All invisalign trays are designed in Costa Rica!