COSTA RICA AS AN ECOLOGICAL DESTINATION

Costa Rica has, in a matter of two decades, gone from having a very traditional type of tourism, to being a model for ecotouristic development. In the course of time it has achieved great modifications in its already established touristic offer: from a few impassable roads and rather quaint, very basic hostel facilities, it has managed to diversify to the extent of being able to offer variants such as "Agro-ecotourism", which is tourism that takes place in a rural or country setting, with close interaction between the tourist and the local culture, production activities and daily routine work of the region.

Later on, "community tourism" was also implemented; in this variant, it is the community itself which plans, programs, implements and benefits directly from tourism activities.

Ecotourism, as of today, is basically a responsible way of handling tourism activities: it takes advantage of the ecological value of the regions for study and observation purposes simultaneously minimizing the impact on the environment and local culture, while at the same time improving on life conditions of the areas involved.

As a responsible offerer, Costa Rica has developed policies for the preservation of its credibility and quality as an ecotouristic destination, and perhaps the most important component of these policies is its high regard for "Sustainable Tourism".

Sustainability implies satisfying the needs of society today without affecting the ability to satisfy the needs of future generations. For this purpose, the ICT (Costa Rican Tourism Institute) has developed together with the Costa Rica National Accreditation Commission a program that helps certify the extent to which tourism companies comply with a predefined sustainability model. This program is called CTS (Certification for Sustainable Tourism) and it is a registered trademark of the ICT. ( http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr/ES/sobreCST/about-cst.shtml ) It evaluates four areas, among which are: interaction between the tourism company and the environment, handling of waste and energy-saving policies, promoting customers to partake in their sustainability policies, and their identification/interaction with surrounding communities. Furthermore, now that the average tourist currently demands that the tourism establishments/projects be committed to preserving and protecting the environment and local cultural and social idiosyncrasies, investors have been thus spurred into carefully selecting eco-conscious projects to invest in. This has collaterally given way to an undesirable effect: "green washing", which consists of the abuse of the terms "eco", "green" and "sustainable" by tourism companies for the sake of marketing and to take advantage of the current boom of eco-consciousness, but without the actual physical support and policies to back it up. Here is where the program comes in handy: not only does it give our tourism a solid and firm base, but it is also a control means to prevent "green washing" practices that damage the reputation of truly committed tourism companies. It is also a guarantee for the tourist because it certifies that the establishment he/she selected is truly eco-conscious.

ICT also takes care of coordination among entities, supporting private enterprises and, above all, it dedicates a lot of effort to increase awareness among participants alerting and warning them about the irrefutable and indisputable fact that Costa Rican tourism, without sustainability measures, simply must not exist. ( http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr/ES/sobreCST/when-why.shtml )

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