The Key Success Factors of the Ecotourism Industry in Costa Rica

This thesis intends to analyze the Ecotourism Industry in Costa Rica given the fact that it has become an industry that represents a significant portion of the Gross Domestic Product for this country in the latest years. In order to perform this analysis, various aspects will be carefully described and analyzed such as the geographical, environmental, socio-political and economical characteristics of Costa Rica and the promotion and advertising strategies which have been used by major players of the industry such as the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo- ICT (Costa Rica Tourism board) , the National Camera of Tourism of Costa Rica (CANATUR), The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), and some private tour operators in order to promote the industry internationally and attract ecotourists worldwide. The theoretical framework used to perform this analysis will be based on advertising and promotion theories by Phillip Kottler and Kevin Keller, and strategy theories by D. Besanko, D. Dranove, M. Stanley and S. Schaefer. Statistics related to the industry will be evaluated as well in order to analyze briefly what has been the evolution of the industry in Costa Rica.List of Figures 3 Abstract 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 6 1.1 Research Background 6 1.1.1 Ecotourism definition 6 1.2 Research Objectives 6 1.3 Research Scope 7 Chapter 2: Literature review 8 2.1 Advertising and promotion 8 2.1.1 Advertising 8 2.1.2 Promotion 13 2.2 Strategic Positioning: Broad Coverage versus Focus Strategies 15 2.2.1 Broad Coverage Strategies 15 2.2.2 Focus Strategies 16 2.3 Tourism Definition 16 2.3.1 Conceptual definitions 16 2.3.2 Operational and technical definitions 17 2.4 Ecotourism principles and types 18 2.4.1 The Principles of Ecotourism 18 2.4.2 Types of Ecotourism 19 Chapter 3: Methodology 21 3.1 Research Strategy 21 3.2 Research Method 21 Chapter 4: Industry Analysis and Results 23 4 .1 Costa Rica: General Characteristics 23 4.1.1 Geographical and environmental characteristics 23 4.1.2 Socio-Political Characteristics 24 4.1.3 Economical Characteristics 26 4.2 Industry Background 28 4.2.1 Significance and Relevance 28 4.2.2 Origin, history and evolution 39 4.2.3 Recent Developments 40 4.3 Industry Fundamentals 41 4.3.1 Sectors and Services 41 4.3.2 Major Players 45 4.4 Future Challenges 70 Chapter 5: Conclusions and discussions 72 5.1 Major findings 72 5.1.1 Country profile’s factors of success 72 5.1.2 Contribution of the industry major players 73 5.2 Research Limitations 75 APPENDIX 76 References 8