Costa Rica ranked first in Latin America as a tourist destination

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Way to go! Costa Rica was recently ranked number one destination in Latin America by the World Economic Forum's annual travel competitiveness report which indexes 133 countries according to their business environment and infrastructure; cultural, human, and natural resources; and their regulatory framework.

Costa Rica, which moved up two places to 42nd place overall this year, also ranked sixth in the world for its biodiversity and protected areas... tenth for the government's prioritization of tourism... nineteenth in effectiveness at branding and marketing... and twenty-second in expenditure on travel and tourism. It also ranked first in all the Americas (yes, even outplacing Canada and the United States) for "human, cultural, and natural resources." Not bad for a country that occupies far less than one percent of the earth's land mass.

A key component to Costa Rica's success has been its Certification for Sustainable Tourism program (more about this in a later blog post), a governmental program that seeks to sponsor sound tourism practices among hotels and tourism providers. The CST program was recently recognized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization as the model for sustainable tourism in Latin America.

Notes the report: "Given the importance of the natural environment for the county’s tourism industry, it is notable that [Costa Rica] ranks a high 27th overall for environmental sustainability, an area of measurable improvement since last year."

Of course, even paradise has its faults, namely: "Safety and security remains a concern (72nd). Further, although its tourism infrastructure is well developed (33rd), with a strong presence of major car rental companies and abundant hotel rooms, ground transport infrastructure requires significant upgrading (103rd), particularly roads and ports, making travel in the country somewhat difficult."

And which countries did the report name top dogs? Switzerland... Austria... Germany... France... Canada... Spain... Sweden... United States... Australia... and Singapore... in that order.

Way to go Costa Rica!