11/08/2019 16:18

Easy but Expensive

[IMG=20545-6272]On July 24th the government of Costa Rica adopted new visa regime for citizens of 102 countries aimed at minimizing formal procedures to enter the country, Gazeta.ru reported. According to the source, the changes also refer to Russian citizens who now can enter the country by presenting a foreign passport at the airport and stay in Costa Rica for 30 days. It is interesting, that according to tour operators, before the new regime was adopted Russian people did not have to go through many formal procedures and did not need to get visa to enter the country. For example, Larisa Davidova, Expert in Costa Rica of UTE Megapolus group, commented as follows: ‘It might be that changes refer to the questionnaire that tourists answer on arrival or $17 airport fee. There were no other difficulties for Russian tourists traveling to Costa Rica’. Furthermore, Vladimir Romanov, General Director of Caribbean Club, said: ‘new rules are addressed to citizens of other CIS countries for whom it was difficult to prepare documents to enter the country’. ‘Moreover, the Consulate of Costa Rica in Moscow does not work at the moment owing reorganization, therefore, tourists from Ukraine and Byelorussia could not travel to the country at all. Now there are no obstacles for them’, commented the Head of the Visa Department of Caribbean Club, Dmitry Polyansky. Meanwhile, according to Russian travel market players, adoption of the new regime will hardly stimulate tourist flow to Costa Rica from Russia and other CIS countries. A representative of Costarica-tour primarily pointed out high flight cost - from $1500.Besides, in-country services in Costa Rica are offered at the similar price. Considering these factors the destination is expensive for the Russian market. However, it has unique opportunities for eco tourists and is rich in excursions. Vladimir Romanov said: ‘only changes within air traffic volume to Costa Rica can stimulate demand for the destination. At the moment scheduled flights are operated via Havana and Frankfurt that is inconvenient. Launch of a charter flight could partly solve the problem’. Nevertheless, tour operators emphasize that now it is too early to operate a charter to Costa Rica owing the fact that the destination is not ready to accept many tourists from Russia. One of the reasons is shortage of stable incoming companies.