From the opening of a new luxury resort to a new marketing campaign, Travel Agent brings you the latest news out of Costa Rica to assist in booking clients to this Latin American gem this spring and beyond.
Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Opens
Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced in December the opening of Andaz Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica’s most anticipated new property and the second Andaz resort to open in 2013 following Andaz Maui at Wailea in early September.
Located on the northwest Pacific coast of the country, the resort offers views of the Bay of Culebra with quiet and privileged views of the ocean, forest and the country’s untouched natural beauty.
Andaz Peninsula Papagayo features 153 rooms, including 21 luxury suites and 8,200 square feet of flexible meeting space. Guest rooms and suites offer spacious balconies with impressive bay views, and balance modern design with touches of local character, including woven textiles, solid woods and carved artifacts to create an authentic, local feel.
Andaz Peninsula Papagayo offers a variety of dining options, including three restaurants. Chao Pescao Small Plates & Bar is designed to help guests sit back, relax and sample seasonal Caribbean-inspired gourmet creations. The restaurant features an open terrace for guests to listen to live Latin music or simply take in the sounds of the nearby crashing waves. Ostra is the hotel’s specialty restaurant, designed to emulate a private residence. Focusing on all the fresh seafood Costa Rica has to offer, Ostra features three live culinary stations, allowing guests to sample specialties and soak in the freshest products and flavors of the country. Rio Bhongo is the hotel’s three-meal, open-air restaurant and features a wine stand as well as a coffee shop with the finest Costa Rican chocolate and tea.
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| Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation Resort |
The hotel also offers numerous outdoor and ocean activities. The 11,000-square-foot Onda Spa offers clients nine treatment rooms and an array of therapeutic treatments, along with a fitness center.
A privately accessible beach for Andaz Peninsula Papagayo guests ensures isolation from crowds, while two swimming pools encourage fun in the sun. The property also features more than 8,000 square feet of meeting and event space, housed in state-of-the-art studios with integrated audiovisual systems, a fully equipped open kitchen, and breakout spaces that are designed to stimulate the creative senses.
Agents should contact Vincent de Croock, director of sales and marketing, at [email protected] or 506-8310-1401.
Costa Rican Culinary Tasting Tour in June
Glenn and Teri Jampol, the owners of award-winning Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation Resort, are on a mission to showcase the amazing flavors of Costa Rica during a six-night, six-day culinary tour from June 1–7.
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| The Costa Rican Culinary Paradise Week takes place this June. |
Dubbed the Costa Rican Culinary Paradise Week, clients will be introduced and guided by chief instructor Mike C., author of Kitchen on Fire and creator of Wine Country Culinary Adventures in Napa, and international culinary adventurer Gilad Chudler of Costa Rica Culinary Tours.
Together with the Jampols, their goal is to showcase some of the best local artisan foods and beverages of Costa Rica, including a tour of Finca Rosa Blanca’s organic coffee farm; a visit to Heredia’s Central Farmers Market; a cooking class and pairing of artisanal cheeses with local craft brews; a day of nature hikes and tours of cacao, vanilla and pepper farms; a visit to Ark Herb Farm and Meadery; and more.
The total cost of Costa Rican Culinary Paradise Week is $3,095 per person for double occupancy and $3,995 per person for single occupancy, and includes five nights accommodation, all meals, cooking classes, guided tours and in-country transportation.
Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation Resort is located just 20 minutes from the San José International Airport, set in the highlands of the beautiful Central Valley. At 4,000 feet above sea level, the lodge’s property offers acres of tropical gardens and paths and a thriving, 30-acre hard bean organic shade-grown coffee plantation.
Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation Resort has 13 rooms (two Master Suites and 11 Junior Suites), each featuring private verandas, sweeping valley and volcano views, and artistic decor.
Agents should contact Reservation Team members Barbara Morales or Edgardo Quesada at [email protected] or 506-2269-9392.
Costa Rica Revamps Travel Marketing With Unified Country Brand
Travel Agent was on the scene at a February 27 press conference showcasing Costa Rica’s new country brand, “essential Costa Rica.”
The new country brand, which has been in development for five years, goes beyond traditional destination marketing by pooling marketing resources for multiple sectors, including travel and tourism, economic investment, and business, under a single brand umbrella. The Costa Rica Tourism Board showed off the new brand to the North American market at the New York Times Travel Show.
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The brand includes a new logo in shades of green, meant to express the country’s reputation for biodiversity, with a bold yet casual font meant to convey the Costa Rican people’s friendly and open disposition as well as the strength and stability of its political institutions.
The brand was developed in four phases, including a research study analyzing the image of Costa Rica within the market, an analytical study on how the country matches up against its competitors, and development of multiple branding options and focus group studies to determine the most favored brand.
The $650,000 brand was developed via a collaboration between the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (CIT), Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) and the Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER). The brand and new logo design were conceptualized by Future Brand.