With the rise of issues of outreach for resources that are necessary for the lives of the people in Costa Rica due to tourism, the attempt to get those resources has become competitive. The international tourism driver manifests through large-scale hotels whose operational demands, particularly for water to maintain amenities like golf courses during the dry season, create a pressure pathway of disproportionate extraction from shared local aquifers without adequate community consultation. The international businesses using up these resources do not share whatever profits they may receive with the community. While this slightly makes sense due to the fact there aren’t full ties between the two, this means there isn’t money to balance out the reality that resources are being used at a high rate. Profits coming first isn’t particularly new, as in a previous study it was concluded that economic benefits were more common in tourist destinations in comparison to socio-cultural benefits (Thapa et. al 7). However this continuous strain of minuscule amounts of conversation between the businesses and the communities leads to major socio-cultural consequences for the region, as stated in an article covering socio-cultural impacts in Costa Rica: “Without consultation of the community or the respective technical studies, the company chose to extract water from the aquifer in the alluvial valley for the hotel, exactly in the location where the community of Sardinal is situated… In situations like these, competition over scarce basic resources, such as clean water or electricity, spark social tension and conflict within local areas” (Kleszczynski 20). Local communities are directly affected by such adverse social effects of tourism, facing water scarcity that forces dependence on trucked deliveries while witnessing their traditional access rights diminished, with adverse implications including potential long-term community resentment toward tourism development and significant costs to residents’ quality of life and sense of local autonomy.
Another impact on the cultures of the locale from tourism is the miscommunication of the indigenous people and their history. When international tourists engage with indigenous communities through superficial visits rather than meaningful cultural exchange, their behavior functions as a tourism driver that produces lasting socio-cultural damage. This pattern typically emerges when tourists, often staying at foreign-owned hotels, make brief stops at indigenous villages as if they were just another attraction on an itinerary. The pressure pathway begins with economic leakage, tourist spending flows primarily to international tour operators and accommodations rather than reaching local hands and extends into the realm of social relations, where indigenous people are reduced to exhibits for tourist consumption. The socio-cultural consequences of this dynamic are profound: community members experience feelings of exploitation and dehumanization, traditional practices lose their authentic meaning when performed primarily for cameras, and intergenerational transmission of culture may weaken as younger community members internalize this distorted, performative version of their heritage. Indigenous communities themselves are most directly affected by these adverse social effects, facing the painful paradox of being visited yet unseen. As one Costa Rican informant observed, when tourists treat communities like museums, “this is hurting these communities. This makes these communities very closed [off], and they try to avoid tourism” (Kleszczynski 22). The adverse implications extend to both tourism and community: for residents, the psychological toll of being treated as a spectacle fosters resentment and cultural withdrawal, cutting off potential economic opportunities; for the tourism industry, the loss of authentic cultural exchange degrades the visitor experience and risks perpetuating stereotypes, ultimately undermining the sector’s long-term sustainability by alienating the very communities that give destinations their unique character.
One more harmful event that arose from tourism was when foreign residents decide to move to Costa Rica permanently but don’t make much effort to learn Spanish or become part of the local culture, it creates real friction between them and the communities they’ve moved into. The tourism driver here is a specific type of migration, expatriates and retirees, mostly from the United States, who settle down in beach towns but kind of stay in their own bubble linguistically and culturally. The pressure pathway works through this one-sided expectation: locals have to adapt by learning English and changing how they run their businesses to cater to these new residents, but there’s rarely any effort made in return. Over time, the socio-cultural consequences build up. Locals start feeling frustrated and resentful toward people who are happy to live in Costa Rica and enjoy everything it offers but won’t actually engage with the people or the culture in any meaningful way. Small business owners, shopkeepers, service workers (the people who interact with these foreign residents day in and day out) are the ones most directly affected. They end up in this exhausting position where they’re constantly adapting to accommodate people who won’t meet them halfway. As one souvenir shop owner in Jaco put it, “What really bothers me a lot is when tourists come to live here and they criticize the culture all the time, but they are living here and also there are also some people here who are not interested in learning Spanish, and they live here” (Pham 32). The implications here cut both ways. For the local community, constantly accommodating without getting anything back takes a toll. It breeds resentment and eventually people just start pulling away. For the tourism industry, having all these unassimilated foreign residents around creates visible divisions that kind of undercut the whole idea of authentic cultural exchange that draws people to Costa Rica in the first place. It ends up chipping away at the community character that made the place attractive to visitors and new residents alike.
