Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, many global industries have changed drastically. The tourism industry is one of them, and its implications are just beginning to manifest for Costa Rica. In 2019, 3.4 million tourists visited the country. The projection is that in 2022, Costa Rica will receive 2.4 million tourists, which is a significant reduction compared to the year prior to the pandemic. However, our country has already taken measures to minimize the negative effect and reactivate the sector by focusing on a different tourism market, the long-stay market.
What these numbers fail to reflect is that a number of these post-pandemic tourists are visiting the country and staying for the entire period allowed by their tourist visa according to their passport. Many others are making the so-called “Border Run” or “Visa Run,” which consists of traveling to the border to re-enter the country and stay for another extended period of time. Several more are assuming nomadic behavior, which implies that they come to Costa Rica during the winter months in their countries of origin and return to their cities for the summer. Of course, creating a visa mechanism for digital nomads means that there will be a significant number of people willing to move to Costa Rica for an extended period ranging from three months to two years to work remotely from the country by digital means.
The impact that these changes will have on the tourism infrastructure, the provision of public and private services, and the opportunities it will present for local entrepreneurship, particularly in rural areas of high tourist attraction due to its abundant natural capital, is considerable and requires data, decisions, and investment to prepare the country for this new version of the post-tourism industry: in addition to people who visit the country for a few days and visit four or five areas of tourist interest, there are also those who are coming to be part-time tourists while teleworking.
For these reasons, the Inter-Institutional Liaison Commission of Immigration Affairs of the Costa Rican Bar Association, organized last October 18th a forum to communicate the achievements of last year, as well as the challenges that the new version of the tourism industry implies for Costa Rica. There are critical elements in the existing legislation and also in the pending legislation in the process of approval, crucial for this industry to grow and prosper. Problems such as the monthly fees that the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) is charging residents, make their stay excessively onerous and have already become a deterrent for several applicants who desist from migrating because of the high costs of medical insurance that they may never use and contributing for a pension that they will never enjoy.
On the other hand, the “draft” of the Regulation to the Law of Attraction of Investors, Fixed Income Persons, and Pensioners, will not recognize investments made through legal entities, which is another great disincentive for the economic recovery of this new version of tourism in Costa Rica.
In this way, the commission seeks that, as a guild, we raise our voices and summon strategic actors to strengthen the tourism industry. The expectation is, in the coming months, high authorities of the Executive Branch in foreign affairs, social security, Immigration, and tourism, will convene to continue feeding and caring for the goose that lays the golden eggs that have been recovering very quickly after the global health crisis. Additionally, we want to urge the current government to define a clear immigration policy to be clear about the type of migrant we want to attract to Costa Rica and align all the gears to conquer that market effectively.