By now you’ve looked you’ve hopefully looked through each of the sections regarding Environmental, Social/Cultural, and Environmental impacts. If you haven’t, please get through these before reading this article. You might be feeling a bit depressed about all of this, but like everything, there’s hope! There are always possible solutions no matter how dire a situation might be and that just happens to be the case for Costa Rica and it’s relationship with tourism.
Possible Environmental Solutions
As mentioned in the environmental impacts by Haley Davis, the depletion of resources by hospitality businesses such as hotels is detrimental to both the local population and the environment surrounding it. Possibly having the government introduce a certification method or some sort of inspection regarding natural resource usage to ensure compliance and environmental regulations could help a lot.
Pollution is a major issue and instead of just one major blanket solution, many ‘micro solutions’ could be implemented instead. Forbidding single-use plastics, encouraging public transportation(or expanding it in the first place), and granting economic bonuses to companies that go above and beyond in environmental consciousness practices could go a long way. Really, something is better than nothing.
Possible Social/Cultural Solutions
Having the government create websites or spread information regarding indigenous peoples to tourists and expats could go a long way in ensuring that they are treated correctly with respect instead of delegated as an oddity or tourist attraction. Ecotourism often revolves around education, so implementing this is extremely beneficial and I would argue almost necessary. Perhaps also instructing or training tour guides on how best to approach this would be a massive help to making the indigenous peoples feel less like a stop along the way and something to genuinely immerse yourself in and appreciate.
Having stricter requirements on businesses/companies communicating projects and major developments to locals and governments to increase transparency and allow for feedback could go a very long way in increasing satisfaction in locals. It would be a bit of a trade-off for the businesses, but the people come first as it is their land and community that is potentially being changed.
Possible Economic Solutions
There are two immediately off of the bat that I could think of. The first of which is to increase spending on infrastructure and police, to help alleviate some of the reasons why tourists are wary to visit. Costa Rica gets most of it’s tourists from the US and US tourists are spooked the most when it comes to places being potentially unsafe. Furthermore, this would help combat some issues that locals have been complaining about and it would be a relatively simple solution to implement.
The second of which has to do with wealth inequality. This might be a bit of a stretch, but a government program that could give the poorest of the poor opportunities for business development WITH support could be a potential solution. It would have to be implemented smartly, not just rubber stamping different proposals and calling it a day.
What Can You Do?
While, admittedly, there isn’t a whole lot that one single visitor or group of tourists can do, every little bit helps. Please feel free to share any ideas you have in the comment section to help others visiting get started. Here are a few ideas to help start you off though: Researching tour companies to ensure that they are local and reputable, respecting wildlife, and approaching cultures and native/indigenous peoples with an open mind.
