Unofficial figures say that the number of tourists who visited by air increased in Costa Rica by about 6.4 percent in the first half of 2007.
In all, 832,604 tourists passed through Juan Santamaría airport in Alajuela and Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia.

The numbers were released by the Camera Nacional de Turismo.

Official figures come from the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería and are released through the Instituto Cosarricense de Turismo. The detailed final figures for 2006 still are unavailable. The figures from the tourism chamber say that 50,258 more tourist arrived by air in the first half of 2007 than in 2006.

Juan Santamaría arrivals were up 3.14 percent, some  18,142, for a total of 595,405 arrivals in 2007.

Daniel Oduber had a 15.66 increase or a total of 237,199 tourists in 2007. That's 32,116 more than in 2006. Arrivals in Liberia are mostly U.S. tourists seeking vacations in the north Pacific.

Not everyone who enters on a tourist visa is a tourist, and the current immigraiton law would establish more categories, although the measure has not been fully implemented.

 

SOURCE AM Costa Rica