ICT (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo), the chamber of tourism of Costa Rica, released their report on tourism numbers for 2013 in comparison to last year.

The rise being reported by ICT officials is 2.7% over this same time last year. This is reflective of the 1.32 million tourist arrivals in to Costa Rica during the first six months of this year.

The Minister of Tourism, Allan Flores is reported as saying, “the most important aspects of the data is the fact that it appears that tourism in the country is rebounding and gaining interest from emerging markets like China, Brazil, Mexico and even the United Kingdom.”

Furthermore, Flores noted that the growth for the second half of 2013 is expected to stay close to the World Tourism Organization estimates of between 3% and 4%.

Costa Rica Vacations has already shown an increasing number of visits from these “emerging markets” with this being especially the case with China considering their handful of recent trade agreements with this country.

Although not mentioned in the report, it has been our experience that another rising market for Costa Rica tourism is coming out of Russia. Unconfirmed reports from officials from the San Jose International Airport (SJO) are supporting this.