<<Surfers Visiting Costa Rica in 2006: 100,278 Average Stay: 17 days Average Spent per Day: US $122 Approximate Revenue Per Person: US $2074 Approximate Revenue for Costa Rica: US $207,900,000 Population of Costa Rica: 4,400,000>> From http://www.savethewaves.org <<Perhaps nowhere in the world has benefitted from surfing as much as the country of Costa Rica. Located in Central America, the county was once as impoverished as its neighbors. In the 1980 ’s and 1990 ’s, encouraged by governmental reforms that provided increased safety and improved infrastructure for travelers, surfers began to travel to Costa Rica in droves, due to its multitude of high quality waves, warm water, and proximity to what was then the world ’s biggest surf market - the United States. Costa Rica often used the image of surfing to promote itself to the world, and now boasts the healthiest economy and highest standard of living in the entire region. This is not to say surfing has been the only driving force in Costa Rica ’s success as a tourism economy, but the sport has inarguably had a positive influence. Here are some statistics from Costa Rica ’s Government Tourism Board:>> You've just gotta hope that all 100,278 don't show up at the same spot all at once, eh?
Pretty rad facts. But I'd rather spend much less than that per day, And i'd be rad to camp down there for a while-17 days doesnt sound bad at all Nicaragua also. Cost of living is super cheap and nice barrels from what Ive seen. I'm down
The number of surfers sounds kinda large. I'd be more inclined to believe those are the total number of visiting surfer days. Hard to imagine 100,278 surfers staying over two weeks each -- wouldn't that be something like a steady state of over 7,000 visiting surfers on a daily basis? Wow to that 100k number.
that is really interesting data... showing 207 million dollars being generated due to surfers. However, I'm not sure that makes sense. When, I go to costa, I usually go for 7-10 days and spend about $40 per day.
The daily spend rate sounds reasonable enough, esp. if it includes the cost of airfare and car rental which is often the case in these types of numbers. While airfare and car rentals do not contribute to the local economy in a major way it is a significant cost of travel. Hotels, villas and lodge rates vary widely... food and drinks and especially those boat trips to Witches Rock really add start to add up the money flowing from the bank.
food for thought 2 of my buddies actually just got back from a 2 month stint in costa rica. there may be several guys like them who bump up the averages
i totally agree. i find it hard to believe that roughly 275 surfers (100,278/365) are coming in per day to surf there. and almost $208 million in revenue for costa rica... come on. but what in the hell do i know.
I doubt that its just surfers from the US, secondly... there are some outlandish people. Who live extravagantly and spend much more than that... so just remember its averaging all the people who go there spend $120 a day.
I spent 34 days there last winter... I will bump my total spending to $1,700 for those 34 days and that includes EVERYTHING... So if you do the math, my spending averages $50 per day.
I'm feeling cynical- This has the look of data coming from an environmental organization (with a totally worthy agenda i'm sure). They exaggerate the surfing economy to make the point that we (or CR) don't pay enough attention to protecting the resource (which i'm also sure is true). In this case surfing resources of clean water, surf break preservation, coastal development etc. The problem is if i cant believe their economic data, am i sure i can trust their environmental data? I sometimes have the same suspicion about the surfrider foundation, and Sierra Club, both of which i support.
any of you guys been to playa santa teresa on the west coast peninsula of costa rica. I'm going Jan 10th
I went to CR in either 2005 or 2006 but i wasnt really surfing yet. I was just spongin and sh** so people like that might throw some numbers off. Or the reverse, maybe some kooks said they were surfers but they really werent
