All Greek to Me

So much information packed into four hours!

Today I heard from four intelligent people Mrs. Vanessa Gibson, Director of After-Care from CINDE, Mr. Roberto Morales an authority in tourism of Costa Rica, Procomer, a promoter of investments of Costa Rica, and lastly Mr. Alberto Mora, Coordinator of the Sustainable Human Development Department of the State of the Region Program.

While all of the lectures were we extremely informative, my favorite topic of the day was the talk on tourism! I have naively loved the tourist industry for quite a while, when Mr. Morales introduced his topic my eyes lit up! 

Ok so tourism effects the whole world directly and indirectly-$2 trillion world wide and 98 million jobs world wide are directly related to the industry of tourism. A lot of jobs you might say!  Well just wait for it...there's more! Another $6.3 trillion and 260 million jobs world wide are indirectly related to tourism.  To put in perspective rather than numbers, it is short just of the fuel industry, the chemical industry, and the automotive industry.

Lets forget about the rest of the world now-just for a minuet or two-and delve a little into some facts about Costa Rica's tourism.  Costa Rica has 59 product lines in 20 main categories which are all under one umbrella...juussst one!

The umbrella of Sustainability! Probably the best umbrella ever! For you who may not know there are a few different types of tourism- leisure, education, business, health, sports, adventure, cultural, and ecological.  My favorite is cultural-as I have previously stated I love learning about different cultures, their tradition, customs, activities, and of course their food!  

To some up here is the definition of sustainability as defined by Costa Rica 

Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs! 

Going around town for dinner and drinks!