Medical tourism continues to grow in Costa Rica. Last year, 36,000 tourists visited the country for health-related reasons, according to new figures from the Council for the International Promotion of the Costa Rica Medicine (PROMED). In 2009, 30,000 medical tourists visited Costa Rica.
PROMED reported that those who visit Costa Rica for medical procedures often travel with a companion and spend six times more than an average tourist. In 2010, medical tourists brought in $295 million to the country. Most of these visitors arrive from the United States and Canada.
The most popular form of medical tourism remains dentistry. Almost 40 percent of medical tourists visit Costa Rica for a dental procedure. Other popular procedures relate to weight reduction, orthopedics, cardiovascular and cosmetic and plastic surgery.
According to the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT), revenues from tourism accounted for
Costa Rica Tourism is up 9% in 2010
6.8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 and over 7 percent in 2007 and 2008. In the last three years, earnings from tourism have averaged around $2 billion.
Through September of this year, the ICT reports that an estimated 1.6 million people have visited Costa Rica in 2010, a 9 percent increase over the same period in 2009.
International flights will be coming to the Southern zone. Exact time is unkown.
The project to build an international airport in the southern zone got a boost over the weekend when President Laura Chinchilla declared the concept to be in the public interest.
That technical designation put a high priority on the $35 million project, which will start in 2012 to put in the bare bones of an international airport. Until then there are more studies and surveys.
Significant planning and environmental work already has been done. For example, officials can say with certainty that the land proposed for the airport does not contain any of the famous pre-Columbian stone spheres of other important sites. An archaeological survey already has been completed.
According to plans reviewed Saturday, the airport will have a runway from 2,000 to 2,600 meters, some 6,560 to 8,530 feet. The site already has been selected. It is fincas 9 and 10 in the Valle de Diquis in Sierpe de Osa. Officials also plan on getting two adjacent fincas for eventual expansion.
Finca 9 is the property of the Instituto Nacional de Fomento Cooperativo, a public agency. It contains 233 hectares (about 576 acres). Finca 10 contains 261 hectares (645 acres). This is enough land for the runway, ramps, taxiways, a passenger terminal, parking and space for a fixed base operator to handle private aviation. Also needed will be a fire station, a control tower, navigation and landing systems and space for customs and immigration.
The money for this project will come from the Dirección General de Aviación Civil, the national budget and an allocation the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes received from the International Civil Aviation Organization, officials said.
Ms. Chinchilla said that the airport is important to generate employment and combat poverty. Real estate operators and tourism agencies are solidly in favor of the project.
Ms. Chinchilla made a tour of the southern zone over the weekend and attended a meeting of the Golfito municipal council. There central government officials agreed to help the city with its tourism promotion.
————–
NOTE: When the project is complete, owners in The Village of San Buenaswill only be 30 minutes from their home. Now is a great time to purchase.
This is the first official update regarding the international airport since former President Oscar Arias discussed it in July 2009.
A break in the rainy season made for ideal conditions for the International Rafting
Costa Rican team competing. Photo from IRF.
Federation’s Pre-World Championships on Oct. 6-11. The International Rafting Federation (IRF) selected Costa Rica as the host site of the 2011 Rafting World Championships, to be held from Oct. 5-10 on the Río Pacuare, near the Caribbean slope town of Turrialba, east of San José.
More than 35 countries will participate in the whitewater rafting finals. Costa Rica was chosen by the IRF over Italy and Australia.
But first up were this year’s warm-up races. Czech Republic rafters outpaced the favored Brazilians to win the pre-worlds, while Costa Rica finished near the middle of the pack.
“I was really pleased with the quality of water in the river and the weather in general, because although it’s muddy, when it rains a lot it’s muddier,” said Rafael Gallo, director of the races and president of the IRF. “We were blessed with good weather.”
Gallo said that while some competitors hoped for wilder waters, overall the often-clear skies provided ideal practice sessions for countries and individual teams preparing for next year’s world championships. Six countries – Brazil, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, the United States and Venezuela – participated in the pre-worlds (participants have to pay their own way), as well as 20 individual teams.
TR Rafting Morava topped the competition for the men, while a Brazilian team finished second and a team from the United States placed third. The best Costa Rican team finished sixth. TR Teva Czech beat out three other women’s teams to win the female rafting competition.
The courses used by competitors were 17 kilometers of the Bajo Pacuare and 700 meters of the Río Cabeza de Güey in San Joaquín, near Turrialba. The competitions included time trials, head-to-head races, and slalom and down-river competitions.
Costa Rica also hosted the rafting championships in 1998. The championships take place every two years. In 2009, the finals were held in Bosnia.
Gallo, who owns the Costa Rican rafting company Ríos Tropicales, said the championships should bring more rafting enthusiasts to Costa Rica. During the pre-worlds, Gallo said some competitions drew 500 spectators, and he hopes for a grander audience during next year’s finals. The rafting committee hopes to have world championships shown by 10 different foreign television productions.
Said Gallo: “It puts the rivers of Costa Rica back on the world map.”
The Foreign Trade Promotion Office (Procomer) announced Wednesday that Costa Rica’s exports have increased 9 percent this year when compared to the first nine months of 2009. From Jan. through Sept. of this year, the country has raked in over $7 billion in sales, compared to $6.5 billion at this point last year.
Procomer reports that 75 percent of all exports are industrial products, 23 percent agricultural products and 2.4 percent fish and livestock. Industrial exports accounted for $205 million more in 2010 than last year, boosted primarily by a 96 percent increase in the export of electric cables and a 36 percent increase in both tires and electrical switches and breakers. Microprocessors and other electric components continue to bring in the largest amounts of revenue, accounting for over $1.4 billion in sales so far this year.
Regarding food and agricultural products, the export of bananas, pineapples and coffee – historically among Costa Rica’s leading exports – all improved, led by a 23 percent increase in the shipping of bananas. In addition to these principal exports, sugar sales abroad have increased a whopping 217 percent, jumping from $23 million in 2009 to $74 million this year.
The majority of Costa Rican exports (41 percent) in 2010 were shipped to the United States, while 12.4 percent have gone to the European Union. Since 2008, exports to the EU have increased 5.9 percent.
According to the Tico Times, Cachí, about 15 km east of Cartago, offers some of the best rock climbing in the country. Gear is available for rent and climbs cater to all abilities. The canyon set amid green hills creates a beautiful backdrop for a day of thrills.
The oil-rich nation of Qatar, which boasts one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world, has announced plans to open an embassy in San José, Costa Rica.
Flag of Qatar
The embassy would be Qatar’s only diplomatic office on the Central American isthmus and one of five in the Americas. It would also be the only Arab embassy in Costa Rica.
This article was written by the planner of The Village of San Buenas.
Part 2: Prefurbia Incorporates Flow
By Rick Harrison
Oct 01, 2010
For the past four decades, the automotive industry has invested billions in fuel efficiency and reducing drag and, at the same time, significantly added to the average engine horsepower. While government has focused on the vehicle, no steps have been taken to make neighborhood streets more efficient.
The management of a new era of design dedicated to reducing time and energy while transiting through a neighborhood is called “flow.” In Prefurbia, flow is essential to neighborhood sustainability.
Getting a vehicle in motion (Phase 1), cruising (Phase 2) and stopping or slowing (Phase 3) are the three phases of a “segment cycle.” A segment begins upon entry to a street and ends when a driver stops or slows down to turn or enter another street. Phase 1 involves the time and energy needed to get a one- to two-ton (or more) vehicle moving from a stop to a target residential speed. In some areas, this could be from 20 miles per hour to 30 mph. Phase 1 consumes the most energy and typically the most time. Phase 2 uses the least time and less energy than Phase 1. Phase 3 consumes almost as much time as Phase 1, but with new braking technology, this phase can actually generate energy. Reducing the number of Phase 1 segments lowers the amount of energy consumed. Similarly, reducing the number of Phase 1 and 3 segments also shortens the time needed to travel.
At 30 mph, the distance needed to accelerate and then stop comfortably is about 400 feet.
In traditional planning processes, designers give little (if any) attention to the flow of traffic. Very few homes are located on an entry street, requiring 90 percent of the residents to travel a minimum of two segment cycles. About half the residents have to use three segment cycles to reach their homes. In Prefurbia, most residents can get home with just one segment cycle, and only a few others have two segment cycles.
The length of Phase 2 is critical. In the conventional subdivision, for the most part, the distance along each segment cycle is quite short with some so small that Phase 2 is never reached. This design may be so inconvenient from a flow standpoint that the driver is “encouraged” to accelerate to make up for the time. Segment cycles within the Prefurbia neighborhood are long, enabling a driver more time in Phase 2.
Note the cul-de-sac on the right in Figure 3. Why didn’t the designer reverse the street to loop the cul-de-sac the other way, reducing the segment length from the entry to the end of the cul-de-sac? Prefurbia is a balance of economics, environment, and existence so the designer must weigh each benefit and derive a design that serves each of the three “Es” well. In this case, the geometry of the area better achieves efficiency with the current configuration. Also, having an intersection serving 30 homes as soon as a driver enters the neighborhood is not the best for safety. On the other side of the site, there is such an intersection but it serves fewer lots. Finally, the cul-de-sac provides a nice entrance void of street intersections. The homes pulled away from the street give the impression of low density. If a street was placed at this point, entering the neighborhood would not have this welcome feel.
In Prefurbia, designers use [www.performanceplanningsystem.com/trafficdiffuers] traffic diffusers, which maintain flow on the primary traffic street while providing the functionality of a roundabout.
From a pollution standpoint – addressing the auto industry without addressing planning is like requiring frosting to have no calories yet use the frosting on a high fat, sugar laden cake
Reducing environmental impacts
Prefurbia reduces waste and employs more efficient forms of design. The method represents a reversal of how technology in land development is used, replacing lots per minute (LPM) automation with the art of neighborhood design. It’s time for technology to be used to construct great neighborhoods for families to thrive. By exceeding the minimums, designers can deliver economic and environmental advantages.
There are only a few situations in which a tight grid pattern designed to minimums is the optimum solution from a geometric perspective. Such a site must closely conform to the dimensions needed to stack lots, with a fairly flat topography and long blocks that have few cross streets.
Here are a few examples that demonstrate better efficiency gains through design.
Figure 1 shows two cul-de-sac’s side by side. Both use the following minimums:
Costa Rica’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) reports that prices fell an average of 0.08 percent during the month of September, the first month this year that consumer prices have decreased. Despite the slight deflation, through the first nine months of the year, average consumer prices have risen 3.87 percent, about a full percentage point higher than during the same period of 2009, when inflation was 2.92 percent.
The CPI, which is calculated by the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC), measures the monthly price variation of 292 national goods and services in 12 categories. In September, average consumer prices fell for food and non-alcoholic drinks, alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, transportation, communication, and entertainment and culture. Prices experienced their largest increases in the areas of rent and living expenses, health, and diverse goods and services.
The largest percentage price decreases were seen in the cost of onions, tomatoes, eggs, gasoline, and automobiles. The largest percentage price increases were seen in the cost of cilantro, potatoes, bread, and domestic help.
From 2000-2008, Costa Rica’s inflation rate hovered around the 10 percent mark, reaching a high of 13.9 percent in 2008. After closing 2009 with a 4.05 percent inflation rate, the lowest recorded figure since 1971, Central Bank President Rodrigo Bolaños has stated on several occasions that the bank aims to keep the increase in consumer prices between 4 to 6 percent in 2010.
“The principal goal (of the Central Bank) is to keep inflation at a low level,” Bolaños told The Tico Times in August. “We have the inflation rate down to around where we’d like it to be, but it hasn’t been at that level for very long. The challenge of the Central Bank will be to maintain it. As the inflation rate stays low, the economy reacts with higher demand.”
From October 2009 through September 2010, consumer prices have risen 5 percent.
We have several new floor plans available to review. Please follow the link below to download the information. http://villagecostarica.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/lasvillassanbuenas_2011_7.pdf
