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Costa Rica's Growing Attraction for Foreign Real Estate Investment

March 12, 2008

The Costa Rican Board of Tourism (ICT), which reviews all new land development projects, announced that new projects so far this year represent $600 million dollars of foreign investment. ICT estimates that the overall investment expected for 2008 will be no less than last year, which brought $800 million dollars from foreign investment.

A growing list of multinational companies investing in Costa Rica includes marquee names such as: Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, Hyatt, Hilton, RIU, Aman and Mandarin Oriental. These multinational companies invest substantial amounts of money in due diligence before deciding to spend millions of dollars. Costa Rica is obviously a logical choice for investors looking to expand globally.

These companies see a growing number of tourists coming to Costa Rica year after year. In January of this year number of tourists increased 13.7 percent as compared to the same month last year, according to early data from the ICT and the Costa Rican Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR). The figure was 145,147 visitors, who arrived at Juan Santamaria and Liberia international airports. In January 2007, the number was 127,647. The increase is above the estimates previously stated.

In Guanacaste Region there will be 9 new upscale resort/hotel projects offering over 3,500 new rooms. These projects are either under way or in planning stages. Companies investing in this region include Hyatt, Hilton, Regent International, Rosewood, JW Marriott, Occidental, Aman International, Ritz Carlton, One & Only Resorts and Four Seasons Resort.

These new projects represent foreign investment of around $1 Billion dollars and will create 7,000 to 13,000 new jobs. A survey last year of 60 small, medium and large hotels across the country, by the Cámara Nacional de Turismo (CANATUR), showed about 45% of room requests were being turned down during the high season, because of the lack of accommodations. In fact, the ICT estimated that they need about 49,000 rooms to accommodate all the tourists currently coming to Costa Rica. This means that 18,192 new rooms need to be brought on-line to support the existing tourism demand.