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According to the U.S. State Department, applications for U.S. passports have fallen 25%. This is a very vague and general number but it certainly does not bode well for Costa Rica tourism in the future.
It does not bode well for anywhere outside Costa Rica that enjoys tourists from the US.
Does Mexico have a special arrangement with the US or do US tourists to Mexico also require passports?
Would you please post the link where you found these stats?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAs of January 2008 I believe, you now need a passport for Mexico. Another statistic to remember is that only 20% (75 million) of US citizens have passports, so 80% of the country is so insulated/naive they do not have any desire to travel and/or cannot afford to. Tourism declined 2% in 2008 and is expected to decline another 3-5% in 2009. A 25% reduction would equal nearly 20 million people, which is significant.
It’s also important to recognize, however, that in the past year or so there was a huge increase in passport applications. If it’s necessary to have a passport to enter Mexico, it’s also necessary to have one to reenter the U.S. from Canada. So the dropoff this year may be attributable to the fact that there was a bubble last year. In effect, the pent-up demand was met before.
Sprite
Why are you so negative about tourism declines in Costa Rica? Tourism is down all over the world because of the bad economy as we know. People are not spending money on anything because they are all scared.
It’s no fluke Costa Rica had 2-million tourists last year and yeah the numbers will be down this year. Just because applications are down 25% for passport applications doesn’t mean it’s the end of tourism.
The population will move forward after we get through this turmoil and return to their spending habits. The whole population of the world is not suffering, they are just being cautious which gives the illusion that everyone is suffering.
I have tons of friends here in the states that are doing just fine. We are not all in trouble and their was a huge buzz about Costa Rica before the downfall.
The tourism WILL return!
For the record I do not work for any travel agency.
Journey7
I have no feelings one way or the other regarding costa rican tourism. It is pretty obvious that all spending everywhere is down. I just reported what I heard on MSNBC financial news this morning regarding the passport applications being down 25%. According to that scource, this data was supplied by the State Department.
There may well be multiple reasons for this decline but the decline is quite significant for a one year period. Pent up demand having been satisfied last year may account for SOME of the decline, but the biggest part has to be economic in origin.I have no idea how much this will affect tourism in CR but the probability is that it is not good.
In times of crisis, people look for leaders and signs and will grasp at anything that supports a point of view or a hope that they may hold. We all do it. It may not be scientific, but it is definitely human. Pardon me if I sound pessimistic most of the time but I am plugged in to financial news all friggin day long as a trader and I am sure this is having a deleterious effect on my outlook.
here is a link
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-passports3-2009feb03,0,4811746.storywhat do you want to bet this graph follows CR tourism stats pretty closely?
http://travel.state.gov/passport/services/stats/stats_890.htmlEdited on Feb 03, 2009 13:21
I would think that a year-to-year comparison of international departures and arrivals would render a much more meaningful image of what’s going on tourismwise than to reflect upon the issuance of passports. Surely the airlines and cruise companies, the Transportation Safety Agency, U.S. Immigration, etc would be sources for that information. Just as having a driver’s license does not mean that one is actually driving, having a passport, new, old or reissued, doesn’t mean that one is traveling.
Passport application levels are just one of many other possible predictive indicators of future activity in international travel. Whatever the main reasons are for the decline, it is still a decline and represents a direction change.
The reasons are simple human nature: great uncertainty begets fear and fear begets retraction. As a construction business owner, this is a time to conserve cash and reduce expenditures until some sign of increased confidence is seen, but business moves forward. Mean while we are still traveling and heading to Spain for 3 weeks in May (bargains abound), golf trip to Austin in October and back to CR in December.
Sprite, how do you maintain your sanity watching financial news all day?Ha! Who says I do maintain sanity?
Seriously, since, as a trader, my income doesn’t depend on the market only going up, I am immune to recession and even a depression as long as it is not Armageddon. In fact, volatility is good for business.Listening to the financial news does tilt one’s perspective as to future prospects for the economy in general but my days of empathy for others who have lived in this system have passed. Americans brought this upon themselves and they will now be as bankrupt as the ideology that they blindly followed for decades.
I DO have empathy for the Costa Ricans, though. If you read the most recent article on this site, you may get a taste of what I see coming down the pike. It won’t just be the U.S. that suffers. This tiny little country will, of course, be subjected to some brutal consequecnes as well. While tourism will be one victim of the crisis, I would be more worried about core economic factors such as agriculture exports.
Edited on Feb 04, 2009 04:58
Edited on Feb 04, 2009 05:02
David,
Also, we have the new enhanced driver’s licenses. If you apply for one, it works like a passport on the Canadian/Mexican border crossings. Some may not be traveling as far now and opt out of getting a passport and use this instead.
No matter which way you slice it, worldwide travel will be down for the foreseeable future.
Percent of US Passport holders.
While it is not the same as international travel we in the U.S can spend a lifetime traveling within the U.S. and see as much or more variety of geology, topography and culture as many that travel the world. Costa Rica is often defined as being about the size of West Virginia, a relatively small state in the U.S.
At nearly age 60 I’ve traveled a lot in the U.S. for business and for pleasure. I’ve visited New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Washington D.C. and many lesser known places. I’ve lived in Virgina, California, Kentucky and North Carolina. While it may not be considered as “exotic” as traveling the globe you could spend your entire life exploring the people and places of the U.S. and not know 1% of it.
I do not think folks in the U.S. are “isolated” or disinterested. There is just a LOT of the U.S. to see. In California you can Ski in the mountains in the morning and swim in the Ocean in the afternoon. . . but to drive it from North to South can take three or four days. In Virginia where I have spent most of my life the forests have trees as tall and areas just as inaccessible as any in Costa Rica. In the U.S. we have mountains with year round snow caps and deserts just as inhospitable as any in the world. We have moose, elk, numerous deer varieties, bears, wild cats, wolves, and dozens of smaller mammals. When you add the birds and fish it totals up to a very diverse bio-system.
The U.S. is not like Europe where you can travel though a dozen countries in a few days. Many of our states are as big as many of those European countries and with the exception that we all speak roughly the same language we are often just as diverse.
SO. . while I have a passport and use it often, I still have a lot of the U.S. to explore. I doubt I will ever visit every state. So why travel internationally if you haven’t even thoroughly studied you own country?
That special license is only for land travel. All air travel requires a Passport to leave and to return. There must also be at least 6 months left on passport before it expires. The date to need a Passport to enter Mexico and be able to return is I believe this June or July.
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