Is a country located in Central America. Nicaragua lies to the north and Panama to the southeast. We are surrounded by water, the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west and southwest. Its capital, a political and economic center, is San Jose and the official language is Spanish.
Costa Rica is one of the most stable democracies in Latin America, because of all the years it has maintained good political stability. It won worldwide recognition for having been the first country to abolish the army on December 1st, 1948. Its index of human development is one of the best in Latin America and is ranked in 4th place behind Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Costa Rica was ranked 5th place worldwide, by the Environmental Performance index in 2008. Among Latin American countries, Costa Rica is ranked 1st in the index of Tourism Competitiveness and is ranked 42nd worldwide.
Economy
Costa Rica has experienced a rapid growth in its economy, changing from a primarily agricultural one to a service economy.
Taking advantage of its peaceful environment and high level of education of its inhabitants and appropriate policies to attract business, the country began a series of measures in the 90s in the production of materials and micro technology products. In n 1997 we heralded the arrival of the microprocessor producer Intel, and the country has benefited from this additional source of income. Costa Rica is the choice of many multinational companies who decided to establish their central services in the country, including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Intel, HP, Sykes and Dole. In 2006, the Intel microprocessor plant was responsible for 20% of the total exports and produced 4.9% of the PIB of the country.
At the same time, Costa Rican traditional agricultural exports continue to provide income like banana, coffee, sugar, cocoa and pineapple. Costa Rica´s high quality coffee is very well received in the American market. However, exports of the nontraditional products, like flowers and mini vegetables, have grown and the service sector has experienced rapid growth in the past years, generating many thousands of jobs.
Tourism
Tourism in Costa Rica is one of the main economic sectors with the fastest growth in the country and contributing positively to the country’s domestic product. In the Competitive Index of Travel and Tourism of 2009, Costa Rica was ranked 42th, the highest classification for the countries in Latin America.
A green vision
Ecotourism is extremely popular among foreign tourists, visiting the vast number of national parks and protected areas throughout the country. Costa Rica is a pioneer in ecotourism and is recognized as one of the few destinations with real ecotourism options.
Introduced in 1996 and inspired by a similar program developed in Europe in 1985, the Ecological Blue Flag Program is the largest environmental program in the country and was created with the objective of promoting tourism development, while at the same time, limiting the negative aspects of this activity, through community organization whose goal was to avoid contamination and to protect the health of its visitors. Beaches, communities, schools, protected areas, micro watersheds and companies that develop concrete actions to address climate change are the categories awarded. In 2009, the Ecological Blue Flag program was awarded to 38 communities Parque Valle del Sol was awarded with 2 stars that year
Golf
In recent years, Costa Rica has been discovered as a great destination for golf. In the central valley, near the capital, there are 2 eighteen hole courses and 3 nine hole courses. On the Pacific coast there are 5 professional 18 hole courses.
