Costa Rica will raffle trips to this country in Canada and the U.S.

Costa Rica is firmly committed to attract more U.S. and Canadian tourists. That is why the Costa Rican Board of Tourism (ICT) launched an intensive marketing campaign in October that will spread to the U.S. and Canada to attract more tourists to the country.

This strategy, developed by an advertising agency in the United States, will draw on media advertisements in North American countries, interaction in social networks and applications for electronic devices such as iPad and raffle packages to Costa Rica every day.

"Costa Rica's Million Dollar Gift of Happiness" is the name of the campaign conducted by the agency “22 Squared” which intends to sell the idea that Costa Rica is the happiest country in the world and that the country wants to share that happiness.

"Today we have taken up the challenge of betting on creativity and innovation. It is time that we stand before the world as we are: a country with a strong commitment to sustainability, a destination praised for our quality of life and especially by our warmth, a place that captivates, surprises and makes people fall for it," said Tourism Minister Allan Flores during the presentation of the campaign.

For a whole week, ICT will have daily drawings for a trip to the country through a social network profile on Facebook. They will also bring well-known personalities from the northern countries to Costa Rica, so that they can tell about their experience while vacationing here.In 2010, more than 2 million tourists visited the country. The government's goal is to increase visitation by 5% every year.

The campaign aim is to regenerate the frequency of North American travelers by approximately 50 thousand tourists. Last year, 950,000American tourists visited the country.

CANATUR Expects Campaign to Reactivate Visitation

With the announcement of the promotion campaign, the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) has high expectations for a great response for the tourism sector in Costa Rica.CANATUR spoke out positively about the strategy and results in the positioning of a brand country and an increase in visitation of the most important markets for tourism in Costa Rica.

The Chamber notes that the current tourism situation is not very different from 2008, but recognizes that the global economic crisis changed the tourists’ habits; they are staying for fewer days and spending less.Canatur has insisted that the promotion should also include emerging markets like South America and Asia and must raise awareness of the diversity of tourism products in Costa Rica to the world.