Tourism Voices from Tamarindo, 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, Tamarindo
He was still in school when he started working the front desk of a hotel in Tamarindo, trying to pick up English and get comfortable with computers along the way. The female tourists liked him, and before long he was going out most nights — drinking, smoking, something he'd rarely done before.
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Tourism matters enormously to the local economy, she says — it has brought real job opportunities and better infrastructure to Tamarindo. As an elder, she stays active in a cultural dance group that works to keep the old traditions alive.
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As teachers, they see tourism's influence on young people up close. It provides real jobs and income — enough that families eat better and stay healthier. Still, there's a question they keep coming back to.
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Tourism means a great deal to the community, the entrepreneur says — genuinely profitable, even with three-quarters of the tourism businesses here foreign-owned. It provides work for at least three thousand people.
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Tourism matters a great deal here, the religious leader says, though it arrived by way of loss. Agriculture and cattle-breeding once defined the local economy; as that land was sold off to foreigners, tourism became the only option.
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