Description:
Since the late 1980s Costa Rica became a popular nature travel destination, and its main competitive advantage is its well-established system of national parks and protected areas, covering around 23,4% of the country's land area, the largest in the world as a percentage of the country's territory, and home to a rich variety of flora and fauna, in a country that has only 0.03% of the world's landmass, but that is estimated to contain 5% of the world's biodiversity. The country also has plenty of beaches, both in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, within short travel distances, and also several volcanoes that can be visited with safety. By the early 1990s, Costa Rica became to be known as the poster child of ecotourism, with tourist arrivals reaching an average annual growth rate of 14% between 1986 to 1994... Developed in 1997 by the Costa Rican Board of Tourism, the public agency responsible for tourism development and regulation in the country, a voluntary Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program (known as CST) was introduced in order to turn "the concept of sustainability into something real" by "improving the way in which the natural and social resources are utilized, to motivate the active participation of the local communities, and to support the competitiveness of the business sector. Implemented in 1996 and inspired in a similar program developed in Europe in 1985, the "Bandera Azul Ecológica" (Ecological Blue Flag) Program is intended to promote development while curving the negative impacts of mass tourism by promoting the local community to organize against pollution and protecting the environment.