Costa Rica Daily News .ORG (costaricadailynews.org)

 Daily News  

Run or get ready your tent these vacations, hotels are going to burst

Predictions insure that these vacations will be one of the best tourist seasons. They will be in the end and in the beginnings of this year; many hotels claim that they are practically full up of reservations.

A little more than one month is missing to start the high season, which runs from December 17th to the 17th May 2008. The beach hotels more desired by the Costa Ricans and foreigners are almost full; no rooms are left during the last two weeks of December

In this holiday period more than 160,000 Ticos go, especially for the beach. Hotel beaches are waiting the arrival of 180,000 foreign tourists.

Ana Gabriela Alfaro, vice president of the Chamber of Hotels, said that this is a normal behavior in the world, this are the last two weeks of the year and the holiday period of most workers.

"These days are the national tourism board internationally. The big hotels, recognized worldwide by the all include service are full up in one hundred per cent of their capacity ", said Alfaro.

Alfaro noted that this season tourists prefer the beach than the mountains, so the Central Pacific, the Caribbean and Guanacaste have an increased demand.

"However, there are many options in mountainous areas. There are also smaller hotels in the coastal areas, which have 40 percent availability for the weeks 51 and 52, but they are not well known, “agreed Ana Gabriela.

Michael Rena, president of the Puntarenas Tourism Chamber said that making a study on the zone hotels this year will be recovered than the last.

"At this moment the hotels in this region roam between 65 per cent and 70 per cent of people, this is quite high percentages," he said.

Alberto Lopez, director of the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) reported that during the high season approximately 940,000 foreigners will visit the country.

"This amount of tourists represented nearly an 11 percent of growth, compared with the previous year," he said