Posts Tagged “wildlife protected areas”

The public tourism industries in Costa Rica as well as government officials have agreed upon improving tourism access to select protected wildlife areas.  The program will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank IDB and the Costa Rican government.

According to the Minister of Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavidez, the program will seek to enhance the infrastructure of those areas that have high visitation ratings as well as those that have never before been open to the public.  Benavidez mentioned that the program will focus on increasing the local community’s benefit from tourism at the same time it will improve each area’s infrastructure, offer and training of personnel.

The program has a total cost of US$25 million and will mainly be financed by IDB.  These funds will be distributed among areas which need to add an infrastructure in order to allow visitors as well as those that already have an infrastructure but needs maintenance and improvement due to its use.

In addition to the collaboration of government tourism sectors, other public entities such as the Costa Rican Electrical Company ICE and the National Areas Conservations System SINAC will collaborate with the Wildlife Protected Areas program.

Benavidez will also request a collaboration agreement within the distinct tourism sectors before Congress’ Environment Commission.   In addition, Benavidez mentioned that a strong marketing campaign will also be included within the program in order to offer these Wildlife Protected Areas as an attraction to tourists while at the same time allowing local communities to benefit from tourism.

This article at Costa Rican Hotels Blog