Tourists travel by boat through the canals of Tortuguero, on the Caribbean coast. Photo by Mayela López for La Nación.

Yesterday, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute reported that revenue from the tourism sector increased in 2015 by 9% over 2014, totaling $2.8 billion for the year. This was partly because the number of actual tourists was up from the previous year: 8% more from the United States, 6.1% more from Europe, and a whopping 29.2% more from China. The total increase in tourists to Costa Rica was by 5.5%, with about 2.6 million people–about half of Costa Rica’s population–visiting the country.

Both the increases in tourists and revenue represent records for Costa Rica,  according to the Minister of Tourism, Mauricio Ventura. In a press conference yesterday, Ventura congratulated the industry and affirmed that his wish for tourism to be the economic motor of the country is coming true, as the percent increase in revenue from tourism was three times higher than the growth in Gross Domestic Product.

If you speak Spanish, you can read more in La Nación; otherwise, the Tico Times covered the same story, and attribute much of the tourism increase to a series of new direct flights available from Europe, particularly by British Airways.