Tourism Voices from Manuel Antonio, in Costa Rica, explore how local communities experience tourism and how they would like tourism to develop.
Stories from this region include the perspectives of local residents, entrepreneurs, young people and other groups involved in tourism.
Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
Tourism has been developing around Manuel Antonio since 1972, the conservationist says, and back then nobody here was really ready for it. But the banana plantations the region had depended on for decades were disappearing fast, and something had to replace them.
Read more →Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
Tourism is now the third-largest part of the local economy, behind fishing and the palm plantations, a municipal official explains — though it runs almost entirely on a single season, from December through the summer.
Read more →Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
The stretch that matters to tourists, a municipal representative explains, runs from Quepos to Manuel Antonio — barely ten kilometres end to end, but it carries the whole region's tourism economy on its back.
Read more →Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
Tourism has undoubtedly brought development to the region, an older woman says — but it can be deceiving. From the outside it might look like everyone here is doing well. In reality, poverty is still widespread.
Read more →Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
Tourism's greatest achievement, in her eyes, is what it's done for local schools — both the level of education and the sheer variety of courses now available have grown enormously.
Read more →Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
Tourism is good for the local economy in Quepos and Manuel Antonio, a taxi driver says — but for people in his line of work, it's a stranger relationship than it looks.
Read more →Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio
Tourism has been good work for him, even if the hours aren't always kind — hotels need someone available around the clock, every day of the year. Still, the work is clean.
Read more →