Costa Rica’s Good News.

It’s fascinating that with all the really positive news that comes out of Costa Rica that most of the English language “news” sources here only focus on the negative, if-it-bleeds-it-leads type news. I simply can’t understand why anyone wastes their money advertising with them.

According to the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism the number of tourists entering and leaving the Liberia, Guanacaste airport was 26.5% more than it was in January 2010 and 54% more than January 2009.

In total – counting all points of entry – a record number of 2,098,000 tourists visited Costa Rica in 2010.

Costa Rica has a total of 2,461 hotels with 43,362 rooms and for December 2010 the occupancy rate for 112 establishments that were consulted by the National Chamber of Tourism was 61.6%. This is an improvement on the 52.6% registered for the same period in 2009 and 51.5% for 2008

Based on the number of new building permit applications, it would also appear that construction in Costa Rica for 2011 will be about 12% higher than it was in 2010.

Intel has announced that it’s investing another $8 million in an engineering development center here and Michael Forrest, the General manager of Intel stated that: “The Center is very important for Intel, but also for Costa Rica. Because Intel counts on some of the most brilliant minds in the world…”

In speaking about the engineering center VP Rani Borkar said that: “Here there is talent with passion and commitment and this is reflected in the success of Intel.”

The Intel manufacturing operation first opened in Costa Rica 13 years ago and with 3,200 staff, it is the largest manufacturing plant that Intel has in the world today.

You might also recall that it was Intel’s top man – the President of Intel Paul Otellini – who was also quoted recently as saying that: “The added value that any employee of Intel brings is his brain. This intellectual capital is what we include inside each one of our processors (chips). Here we have an incredible engineering team that streamlines our technology.”

It was also announced this week that US companies Curtiss Wright (one of the world’s largest aviation companies employing 18,000 people in Buffalo, NY), Value Access and Covidien will also be setting up operations in Costa Rica.

Unlike many parts of the world which are suffering from significant job losses, 34 international companies in Costa Rica including Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical Hologic, National Instruments, Amazon, Fujitsu, HP, Dole, Emerson, Western Union, IBM, Abbot Vascular, Curtiss Wright and Covidien are hoping to hire around 4,400 staff at the Bilingual Job Fair to be held in San Jose, Costa Rica on the 18-20th of February

You are free to choose to read all the blood and guts news you want – you’ll find it all over the world – but, in reading this news and seeing what some extremely smart people are doing in Costa Rica, you can’t help but ask yourself: “If living in Costa Rica looks so attractive to the executives of companies like the ones listed above, just maybe I’ll love it too…”

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of 1. Costa Rica Real Estate Scams & How To Avoid Them, 2. How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa, and 3. Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.