Costa Rica turns down investment for huge hotels

The residents of Costa Rica’s Caribe Sur made it clear they won’t accept a change in their area’s development if that implies the building of high-rise hotels.

Up to now, lodging projects have stuck to the original idea of not exceeding 20 rooms each. Now residents claim the area’s attractiveness could be in jeopardy if the draft plan for making two-story, 50-room establishments finally gets the green light from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.

This initiative has prodded dwellers to turn to a number of organizations, including the Association for the Comprehensive Development of Puerto Viejo and the local Chamber of Commerce, in search of a way out to the squabble.

The new proposal is banking on the need to build better infrastructure and access roads to the region, among other top priorities.

The heart of the matter, experts point out, is that would the new plan be passed, then owners of local mom-and-pop businesses will be bound to stick to new legal regulations and be a part of the new regulatory plan.

The general project is attached to the General Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development that comprises a ten-year plan ending in 2002 and seeks better planning for potential regions of the country in an effort to avoid overcrowding or saturation.

The draft plan also points to the need of creating new jobs in the Costa Rican location of Limon to stave off rampant unemployment rates now hitting the local workforce.

“We want larger hotels in some areas in order to spur up job creation for the residents of Limon,” said Guillermo Alvarado, general manager of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.

Limon’s hotels are usually 13-room lodgings and average 0.4 employees per room, a low ratio compared to both national and international patterns.

Mr. Alvarado stressed the need to equally listen to what local residents have to say on this issue and even hear out their counteroffer.

The draft plan lays bare the dire straits that less demanding sectors of the leisure industry in that region of the country are buried in, and underlines the need to give them a mighty leg up.

Mr. Alvarado also said there’ll be discussions with locals in coming weeks with a view to insert their complaints and opinions in the draft plan and reach consensus on a number of thorny issues.