Gringo Bashing in Costa Rica?

This article is written by an American businessman who lives and works in Costa Rica and appears on Insidecostarica.com. Over the years the Costa Rican government and the tico's have begun to take Americans and the economic benefits they bring for granted. Where tico's once were welcoming and desirous of Americans to come visit and live there, it seems there is a growing anti-American sentiment at worst and gringo gouging at the cash register at best. As this gentleman points out, if Americans quit coming to Costa Rica, their economy would be devastated. I think this same sentiments could apply to Panama although I don't believe North Americans make up as much of the overall economy in Panama as they do in Costa Rica.

By John Holtz*

Just how dependent are we, in Costa Rica, on the economic well being of the United States and its population? I'm not convinced that Costa Rica really knows the answer to that question and perhaps does not care too much.

Maybe economic ignorance is a good thing since the US economy and most Americans are on the emotional cusp of deep depression brought on by way too many conflicting, contradicting expert opinions and figures drowning out the much needed feelings of optimism for the future.

We are told that at least 60% of all tourists who come to Costa Rica are from the US and that is a lot.

In a land where facts tend to conflict, I have heard 30,000 and up people have come from the US and live here but the records show as of March 31, 2010 only about 13,795 or so are in CR legally. But, they do spend a lot of money and they do invest heavily in Costa Rica. **

In total, the estimated amount of legal expats in Costa Rica is 346,956 from all over the world. That´s about 8% of the population. **

Thanks to the Spanish language newspaper, La Nación, we learned that CR´s growth for 2009 was not 2.2% as advertised but rather -1.8% and that is a shocker. Costa Rica´s deficit of trade jumped an astounding 86% for the 1st seven months of this year and make no mistake about it, the United States is CR´s number one customer.

The unrealistic and perplexing dollar – colon exchange rate is making CR products, the cost of living and services priced out of most international markets and there is no relief in sight. None at all! (Just try and get a straight answer as to why!)
Of investments, Americans are at the top of that list and they heard very few complaints from the nationals who held up the “Costa Rica For Sale” sign high above their heads during the boom years.

Costa Rica has survived for many, many years from the milk of the United States and it has been fairly easy with nifty slogans like “Pura Vida”, “Switzerland of Central America,” “Military Free”, “First Democracy”, “No Artificial Ingredients” etc. to attract Americans.

But, during the last several years the tits of mother America have gone dry and it looks like they will stay at just a dribble for more years to come. Perhaps many if you believe some economists.

Even Costa Ricans who work in the US and remit money home have had a dramatic drop from 2.3% of the CR GDP in 2007 to only 0.3% in 2009.

It is impressive the estimation of CANATUR and ICT who are paid well to pump only sunshine of these millions of tourists who are crowding the airports every day. However, According to a report on Canal 7, the average stay per tourist has dropped from 14 days in 2007 to just 10 or 11 days in 2010. None of those experts interviewed took a shot at how much money was typically being spent each day and even during the Costa Rica two week school break, hotels were only 46% full and restaurants mostly empty.

Having been touted as inexpensive, Costa Rica is being marketed as a good place to retire and live on the cheaper side of life. At least that´s what the real estate and tour agencies now promote. Sorry to bring in a little reality, however, it is expensive living in Costa Rica unless you are willing to make serious changes in life style plus you might wish to buy a gun.

In 2006 until 2008, while pieces of Costa Rica were being sold off, prices skyrocketed for everything from property to food stuffs because there were buyers on every airplane that landed and they have not come back to earth since then.

But now with American inbound cash flow slow to none, I am finding that Costa Ricans are not as warm in their welcome as when we had lots of money to spend.

Recently and too often, I have heard and read the time honored clichés more than I want: “Yanqui Imperialists”, to “Gringos Go Home” and even “Kill the Gringos” in Spanish language blogs and newspapers. Especially in response to the US sending ships and patrols to root out the drug traffickers at the invitation of the Costa Rica government. (Don´t blame Gringos, blame yourself for voting not once but twice and making the invitation in the first place.)

So Ticos, my advice as a businessman, is to drop this Gringo Bashing stuff! It´s not getting you anywhere.

Stop invading our hotel rooms, our homes, and our cars. Stop over charging us for everything and anything plus don´t even think about adding more taxes than we already pay in Costa Rica. And while you are at it, give us some efficient security, okay?

And if Costa Rica would rather ride the big horse to Beijing, may Zorro ride with you because the country will need a swift sword of justice on her side.

This is a new day and possibly the start of a new “norm” where Costa Rica will need to adjust and learn to compete on the open market for both tourist money and foreign investments in general.

Most of all, if Costa Rica wants foreign money she needs to embrace expats and should very much include them into the policy making process instead of keeping them outside the decision making loop. Only citizens should vote. That´s a given. But expats need to be heard because without them, there ain´t no economy, and “That´s a fact Jack” (Movie “Stripes” Bill Murray).

Costa Rica, think about the negative economic and social impact if expats did indeed pack their bags and took their money out of the country.


*John Holtz is the Executive Director of the Center for the Studies of Modern Management www.modernmanagement.org and can be reached at: [email protected].

**Source: Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería