Ulrike Gretzel
Texas A&M University

SPECIAL ISSUE ON TOURISM IN COSTA RICA

This is the first special issue published in the e-Review of Tourism Research and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to it. A special thank you goes to Dr. David Matarrita, who served as the guest editor for this special issue. Dr. Matarrita is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. He has a PhD in Rural Sociology from Penn State University and his research focuses on tourism as a development tool, impacts of tourism, tourism and quality of life, and the community agency’s role in tourism-based communities, especially those that are rich in natural resources. Before embarking on his academic career, he worked in the tourism industry. He is also a Costa Rican native and is, thus, a perfect person to coordinate a special issue on tourism in Costa Rica. The special issue continues the tradition of eRTR of bringing both academic and practitioner viewpoints into the mix. It provides an overview of trends in Costa Rican tourism and at the same time fleshes out very interesting challenges for tourism and conservation in the country that is often portrayed as the poster child for successful sustainable tourism. While the focus is on Costa Rica, many of the points raised in the papers apply to destinations worldwide and therefore should be of interest to our global readership. Dr. Matarrita introduced me to Costa Rican culture, customs, food, natural resources, politics and way of life. It is a fascinating country with a very interesting history and an equally intriguing tourism development trajectory. I hope you will let him introduce you to this unique country and its tourism industry.

Pura Vida! Volume 8 Issue 6 2010: Commentary 1

Download PDF