Jetair Flight Holidays

Liberia airport to welcome charter flights from Brussels

(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) – The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) announced that a new charter flight originating in Brussels will soon be arriving in Liberia, promising to bring at least 2,655 European tourists to Costa Rican in a four-month period. Jetair Flight Holidays is the airline making the journey between Brussels and Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport on a weekly basis, with a layover in a Caribbean destination yet to be announced. According to Maria Amalia Revelo, ICT’s marketing manager, the charter flight will operate from November 2009 and March 2010. It is estimated that the flight will bring some 120 tourists each week to Liberia, or half the seats available in the Jetair Flight Holidays aircraft. “This is great news for Costa Rica,” Revelo said. “Belgium, to us, is a very interesting market which, as we have seen, generates more and more visitors each year.” With the goal of opening up this new tourist route, a cooperative campaign is being implemented, for which Jetair NV (Jetair Flight Holidays’ tour operator) and ICT will each invest $46,600. A cooperative campaign is a joint promotion initiative that requires investment in equal shares by ICT and wholesalers, airlines or trade partners — whether domestic or international. In the case of Brussels, total investment in the promotional campaign is $93,200, which will be used for publicity efforts including full-color ads in Belgian newspaper — such as Corelio and De Persgroep, which reach approximately 1 million people. The campaign will also include presence at tourism fairs visited by some 1,000 travel agencies; information delivery to databases with 185,000 contacts; ads in specialized publications; and development of materials touting Costa Rica’s attractions to distribute to 2,500 travel and publicity agents via Jetair Flight Holidays’ website and in-flight magazine. European tourism has greatly contributed to filling the void left by dwindling U.S. travelers due to the ongoing recession. One of the European countries that has contributed the most tourists to Costa Rica is Spain. According to data from tourism officials, based on reports from the only Spanish airline that flights to Costa Rica, some 25,000 from that country will come to Costa Rica this year. Last year, some 190,000 European tourists visited Costa Rica — a 21 percent increase compared to 2007. This year, some 215,000 Europeans are expected to vacation in Costa Rica, that is, 25,000 more than in 2008. Many of these travelers will arrive directly at Daniel Oduber, where a new parking platform has been completed. Such works gave the Liberia terminal room to accommodate 11 large airplanes (four more than its previous capacity). The project also included extensive improvements to the runway.