Topic
Ecotourism
7 articles
Articles tagged with this topic across every collection on the site.
Part VII: Ecotourism and Its Discontents
Costa Rica concentrates real economic development in the Central Valley while the coast gets seasonal hotel work. The fix is bringing the high-tech economy to the periphery.
Part VI: The Economic Reality—Can Costa Rica Grow Without Mass Tourism?
Everyone has opinions about Costa Rica's economic future. Fewer have read the trade data. Before debating airports, the data is worth a look.
Part V: The Case for Mass Tourism
Osa is 35 percent poor and tourism advocates offer airports, resorts, certifications. The case deserves examination at its strongest, against the evidence.
Part IV: The Battle for Osa
Three fronts are pushing Guanacaste-style development onto the Osa Peninsula: a $105 million airport, doubled park capacity, and a Hilton-branded marina.
Part III: Two Systems, Different Physics
Mass tourism and ecotourism follow different physics. One extracts until the resource degrades. The other generates value by maintaining what visitors pay to see.
Part II: The Guanacaste Model—Extraction Economics
Peninsula Papagayo sells itself as sustainable while running a colonial extraction operation, with natural capital treated as ore to be exported.
How Costa Rica Invented Ecotourism (And Lost Control of the Word)
Costa Rica invented authentic ecotourism in the 1980s. Luxury developers now use the same legal framework to do the opposite.