Whale Watching Worldwide
Whale Watching Worldwide
Whale Watching Worldwide
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Costa Rica<br />
Year Number of<br />
whale<br />
watchers<br />
AAGR Number of<br />
operators<br />
Direct<br />
expenditure<br />
Indirect<br />
expenditure<br />
Total<br />
expenditure<br />
1991 None N/A None None None None<br />
1994 100+ N/A N/A $200,000 $50,000 $250,000<br />
1998 1,227 87.2% N/A $100,000 $118,000 $218,000<br />
2006 105,617 74.5% 52 $5,318,487 $15,842,550 $21,161,037<br />
Capital City: San José<br />
<strong>Whale</strong> Watch Locations:<br />
01: Bahía Drake<br />
02: Quepos<br />
03: Manzanillo<br />
Costa Rica is the fastest growing whale watch area in Latin America.<br />
Costa Rica’s long Pacific coastline, with numerous gulfs and bays,<br />
provides a habitat for coastal cetaceans and good spots for whale<br />
watching. Growth in whale watching is being driven by an increase<br />
in overall tourism, which is outpacing the rest of Central America.<br />
This is most likely due to Costa Rica's political stability and efforts to<br />
establish and publicise its extensive national park system. The growth in tourism is being led by US tourist<br />
numbers, which have nearly doubled in five years.<br />
Most whale and dolphin watching occurs on the Pacific coast, and is centred on Bahía Drake and Quepos.<br />
Most businesses are small and owner‐operated. Visitors can expect to see humpback whales, bottlenose<br />
dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins and spinner dolphins, and false killer whales. Prices for boat‐based<br />
trips are around $20 Bahía Drake; Quepos is more expensive, and tours cost around $60.<br />
Seven operators have begun trips on the Caribbean coast, around Manzanillo. These trips are focused on<br />
smaller cetaceans, mainly bottlenose and Atlantic spotted dolphins, short‐finned pilot whales and tucuxi<br />
(marine). Boat‐based trips here cost around $30.<br />
Main species: Large cetaceans:<br />
blue whale, humpback whale<br />
Small cetaceans:<br />
Atlantic spotted dolphin, bottlenose dolphin,<br />
false killer whale,<br />
pantropical spotted dolphin, spinner dolphin,<br />
tucuxi<br />
Tourists:<br />
International Mainly international, from USA<br />
Domestic<br />
Types of tours: Boat‐based<br />
Average adult ticket price: $45<br />
Estimated employment<br />
104<br />
numbers:<br />
Main whale watch season: December to March (main tourist season)<br />
246
Change language