- European visitor numbers to Costa Rica are plummeting in 2025
- Tourism officials scramble for new air routes to Rome, Lisbon, Copenhagen
- South American markets, especially Colombia, are being targeted with fresh marketing
- Industry leaders criticize currency pains and government response
- Rural jobs and small businesses hang in the balance
- Global tourism is booming, while Costa Rica is left on the tarmac
A tropical country that once basked in the glow of envy from its less-sunny neighbors now sports a fresh badge of honor: the highest drop in European tourists this side of the Atlantic. The Costa Rican Tourism Board, also known by its more bureaucratic moniker ICT, announced with the energy of a lifeguard on break that it is “negotiating new air routes with Rome, Lisbon, and Copenhagen.” Evidently, desperation has become an international phenomenon.
Costa Rica, once a prized stopover for German, Spanish, French, and British visitors, saw a decrease of approximately 2.8% in European visitors in the first semester of 2025 compared to the first semester of 2024. The country’s airports are left waiting for travelers who booked flights elsewhere, presumably in search of places where vacations come with fewer complications or, at the very least, better exchange rates.
- 2.8% drop in air arrivals from Europe during the first half of 2025
- Major European markets (Germany, Spain, France, UK) are shrinking
- ICT is currently “negotiating new air routes with Rome, Lisbon, and Copenhagen.”
- Industry hopes new connections will plug the gaping hole in visitor numbers
- No sight of a proper recovery, with the low season looming
The numbers are simple: fewer visitors, more problems. And nothing says “fun in the sun” like tropical unemployment. With up to 8% of Costa Rica’s GDP tied to international tourism, the fallout is as cheerful as a rainstorm at a wedding. Job security for rural workers and small business owners now seems as solid as a sandcastle at high tide.
Airborne Solutions and Economic Headaches
In a dazzling display of optimism, Costa Rican tourism officials now pin their hopes on new partnerships and marketing efforts. If only they could market the country out of a European tourism decline the way they used to sell white-sand beaches. Over in South America, a promotional blitz in Colombia carries the torch of last resort. The plan, as explained by ICT’s South American markets coordinator Heylin James, is to turn Costa Rica into a “sustainable, diverse and accessible destination.”
Colombia now ranks as the third-largest source of visitors to South America, trailing only Brazil and Argentina. Meanwhile, new direct flights from both Toronto and Ottawa to Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport make their debut—a modest milestone, since this will be the first time Costa Rica and Ottawa share more than a passion for world maps.
What’s Stirring Industry Outrage?
- The famous “unfavorable dollar exchange rate” makes vacations feel pricey
- Small and medium businesses are taking a greater hit
- Tourism sector left skeptical by Official optimism and paper projections
- ICT claims a possible 1.7% bump in tourists for late 2025, mostly wishful thinking
- Four off-peak months all but guarantee more unsold hotel rooms
Meanwhile, as the world embarks on millions of global air adventures, Costa Rica becomes the unlucky soul stuck in airport purgatory. The United Nations World Tourism Organization anticipates 5% global growth for early 2025. Costa Rica can only look on, hands in pockets, contemplating better days.
If irony traveled by plane, it would have direct flights to every deserted beach in the country.
- Costa Rica’s golden tourism years are parked on the runway
- Tourism officials double down on shaky optimism and” half-baked marketing
- The private sector, including countless rural workers, braves the downturn alone
- Every passing year in 2025 leaves more empty rooms, empty tables, and empty promises
Travelers gazing at empty resorts may enjoy more elbow room, but nobody’s talking about the price of that privilege—least of all the officials hoping a few new flight paths will change the forecast.
