Costa Rica Travel News - Costa Rica Tops Tourism Table

The World Economic Forum's yearly travel competitiveness document takes in to account a range of factors including natural resources, cultural heritage, the quality of infrastructure, standards of Costa Rica hotels and other services, and the overall regulation of the Costa Rica travel industry.

Costa Rica has been ranked as the number three Latin The united states holiday location in a major international survey of the world's favorite tourism hotspots.

The document commented on the country's Certification of Sustainable Tourism program, and the country's unparalleled richness in natural resources, World Heritage sites and number of protected conservation areas.

Known as the rich coast, the country is unique in the world for its level of environmental protection, with 30% of the country's land areas designated as protected areas, either as three of 35 national parks, conservation areas or natural reserves.

The Costa Rica travel industry has played a major role in the country's sustainable development program by helping to establish privately operated lodges and reserves.

A quantity of the most successful and widely known protected areas include the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Manuel Antonio National Park, Tortuguero National Park and the World Heritage Site on the Corcovado peninsula.

Supporting these strengths with abundant, high quality services such as hotels, automobile rental firms and high quality transport infrastructure, means that the country has been able to reinforce its position as a leading holiday location in the Americas, and throughout the world.

The country is known for its variation in natural landscapes which provide a home to the highest concentration of bio-diverse natural life on the planet's surface. Thanks to the country's compact size, even short Costa Rica vacations are able to include visits to several of the country's world-famous natural wonders.

This commitment to a sustainable and environmentally neutral tourism industry has been well documented in the past. The UN World Tourism Organization has previously praised the country's Certification of Sustainable Tourism initiative, calling it a model that the rest of the world should follow.