We spent last week at the tourism fair in San Jose Costa Rica and I wanted to share with my readers some of my observations. Many of you have noticed that I regularly post articles about Costa Rica on my blog. Some have even commented that I must be working for the tourism board of Costa Rica as it appears that I am putting down Panama by making comparisons between the two countries. The fact is that Costa Rica has some very positive aspects that we should emulate and learn from along with some negative aspects we should try and avoid. I believe it is important for Panamanians and foreigners alike to fully understand what sets them apart in order for the country to make the most in what each has. To say that one country is better than the other needs to be understood in what context. I read in the international press where Panama is the next Costa Rica or where the IPAT says Panama will surpass Costa Rica in tourism and I am extremely skeptical of these kinds of proclamations. I hope that the following analysis and observations might help us to understand these differences and better equip us to take advantage of our strengths.
Lets start with Costa Rica.
One thing we should all agree on is the fact that Costa Rica has been attracting eco tourism for a much longer time than has Panama. While Panama was dealing with Noriega, Costa Rica was attracting foreigners to retire and those foreigners built the tourism infrastructure over the last 20 years or so that has made Costa Rica the attraction that it is today.
Here are some facts I gleaned from my meeting with the ICT (Costa Rican tourism board.) in San Jose. Costa Rica has over 2000 hotels with about 40,000 total hotels rooms. The average hotel size is less than 20 rooms. 85% of the hotels are owned by foreigners and 85% are located outside the city. The focus of 99% of these hotel operations is eco tourism. Last year Costa Rica had about 1.7 million visitors.
What strikes me most is the contrast between these hotel statistics and those of Panama. According to this article I posted last year, Panama is expected to have 24,000 hotel rooms by 2010 with the addition of 7,000 that are currently underway. The majority of these hotels are being built in the city. Go here to see a post about their size and location. The beach areas west of the city are certainly attracting a volume of foreign tourists, but this type of tourism is more in line with the beach areas of Cancun Mexico than the small eco resorts of Costa Rica. When hotels are built in cities they are clearly for business related activities and not eco tourism.
Why there is no eco tourism in Panama
The fact is there
are very few eco tourism hotels in Panama and there are several good
reasons for that. All one has to do is to drive across the
border from Panama into Costa Rica and it becomes readily apparent. As
we drove across the border last week my wife, a Panamanian, exclaimed
that it
looks so different just as soon as you make the crossing? Costa Ricans
notice a difference too as they come into Panama. For us it is the
abundance of vegetation in
Costa Rica and the stark reality of open cattle pastures in Panama.
Panama has long ago sacrificed its accessible rain forests and jungles for cattle farms and agriculture. It is not that the Costa Ricans are by nature more ecologically minded than Panamanians. The fact of geography is one of the reasons they have had little deforestation. Within a 15 minute drive as you cross the border into Costa Rica, you notice that the terrain turns from flatlands to mountains. The Talamarca mountain range which runs 30 kilometers back from the Pacific all through Panama, becomes much closer as soon as you enter Costa Rica. Mountains are more difficult to clear for cattle and with the lack of good roads to remove the timber, it is the main reason Costa Rica has so much more forest and Jungle. Certainly the laws Costa Rica enacted and enforced protecting the environment in the earlier part of the 20th century have helped to protect the land from ranching after road building began in earnest there, but the geography and lack of good roads early in its history has played a major part in protecting its environment.
By contrast,the next time you take a plane from Panama City to David, look below and notice from the mountain tops to the Pacific and you will see that the land has been stripped of all its timber. Even in the higher elevations you see the distinct criss crossing of dirt roads and cattle trails along the mountain ridges. These roads were used by the settlers in the beginning of the 20th century to clear the land of jungle and make way for the cattle ranches that now fill the landscape. The only areas where you see any forest, other than the national forest preserves, is on the undeveloped Caribbean coast where there are no roads to access the forests. There is little tourism development there either for the same reasons.
By contrast, the mountains along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica meet the sea bringing their forests and the abundant nature with them. You hear the sound of howler monkeys as you drive along the road that in most places meets the ocean. This type of geography also produces the beautiful crescent shaped beaches of white sand that are in abundance all along the coast. It is in these mountainous coves where you find the great numbers of small eco hotels catering to the tourists seeking the eco adventure advertised in every brochure and media outlet on Costa Rica.
Along the coastal areas of Chiriqui the sand is dark and the beaches stretch for hundreds of meters between low and high tide as the slope of the land is very shallow. The numerous rivers bring a great deal of silt as they travel through the cattle pastures and rice fields. Even some of the islands close to the shore have been turned into cattle ranching. Only in the national forest of the Chiriqui highlands will you find the pristine jungles that once flourished across the whole province. And, other than on the Caribbean, only on the numerous small islands in the Gulf of Chiriqui will you find the white sand beaches and jungles that are similar to those of our neighbor to the west. What areas of natural beauty we have left in the province are incredibly beautiful, but they are not nearly in abundance as in Costa Rica.
The Panama advantage
Yes there is no doubt that the
advantages of the Costa Rican
environment is strikingly different from that of Panama, but there is
the other side of the coin that needs to be addressed. Panama has some
significant advantages over her neighbor to the west. We have a number
of foreigners who live in Costa Rican who cross the border and stay in
our resort in Chiriqui. They are amazed at how civilized Panama appears
to be over the country they chose to live in.
The roads are much better and they can buy just about anything here
at much lower prices. From the moment they cross the border into Panama
they are not thinking about how we have cut down all the forests. They
are thinking about how great our four lane highway is and how nice to
see shopping centers and hospitals along the road way. They wonder why
they have such very high duties on
their goods and vehicles in Costa Rica while we have very little. They
are amazed that our home prices
here are less than half that of their country. Crime is a growing
concern in Costa Rica as they have become a victim of their great
success at attracting foreigners to vacation and live on their
shores and mountains. Another great advantage they see in Panama is the
corporate and tax
structure. Many of them cross the border to open bank
accounts and form Panamanian corporations to protect their assets in
Costa Rica.
In conclusion
So the facts are that Panama can never
really compete with Costa Rican as an ecological tourism destination.
Panama has the advantage of a well documented and incredible history of
transformation from a 1500's backwater to the center of the universe in
transits for goods and services in the 21st century. It is in her
unique combination of modernization, infrastructure, history and
culture that make Panama a major attraction as a place to live and
live well rather than just to visit. Panama cannot afford to spend
millions in marketing to be something she will never become, but she
can and should focus on her strengths and attract people to her shores
to live here rather than just pass through along with the containers in
the canal and money through her many banks.
There are many foreigners who long to live among the forests and monkeys and are willing to share that world with the many visitors that come to gawk at the incredible world of nature. If you can afford to pay for it and are willing to sacrifice some of the many comforts of the first world, then Costa Rica may be the right place for you. If on the other hand you want access to all that natural beauty on a few hours away, but still want to live where goods and services are reasonably priced and in abundance, then Panama may be the right choice. After having lived in both countries I find Panama to be more to my liking.
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