European tourism expected to jump
Costa Rican tourism officials hope that visitors from Europe will increase from 25 to 30 percent this year, in part because of a new Iberia Airlines flight from Spain.
Rodrigo A. Castro Fonseca, tourism minister, made this observation Saturday at an evening welcoming ceremony for the first direct flight by Iberia.
The flight costs $750 aboard a 250-passenger Airbus A-320. Three times a week, as it did Saturday, the flight stops first at Guatemala City. A Sunday flight is direct to and from Madrid. Three times a week the flight passes through Panama City.
This excess growth will undoubtedly flow over into Nicaragua, increasing it's own increase similarly 25% to 30% . The high season of 2004 - 2005 will be the boom growth of this year.