The Juan Santamaría international airport, the most important in Costa Rica, exceeded the passenger traffic registered before the covid-19 pandemic, which the authorities celebrated this Friday as proof of the recovery of tourism, reported this Friday.

According to the report by AERIS, the concessionaire company of the terminal, during the first quarter of 2023 there was a growth of 2.4% compared to that period of 2019, to reach a total of 1,529,914 passengers between incoming and outgoing airports. , which demonstrates a recovery of the sector.

“We have ensured that the economic recovery through tourism is a reality, for months we have reported how close it has been to resuming the pre-pandemic figures, and three years after the arrival of covid-19 in our country, which implied, among many impacts, the temporary closure of our borders, we can already affirm that we have reached and exceeded that recovery,” said the general director of AERIS, Ricardo Hernández.

The concessionaire, together with the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), is currently working on positioning Costa Rica as an attractive tourist destination, as well as increasing passenger traffic with strategies to promote and attract airlines.

“The Investment Attraction Unit has been working in coordination with AERIS to attract more seats to Costa Rica. Thanks to this work, the positioning of the ‘Esencial Costa Rica’ brand and the support of the private sector, we see a constant growth of arrivals of tourists and new routes to the Juan Santamaría Airport,” said the head of Investment Attraction at ICT, Hermes Navarro.

Official data from the ICT reveals that Costa Rica added a total of 2,349,537 tourists who entered by air, land and sea during 2022, which represents an increase of more than one million visitors compared to 2021.

Tourism is one of the main engines of the Costa Rican economy. Before the health crisis, this country of 5.1 million inhabitants received just over 3 million tourists each year and tourism employed some 400,000 people.