Guanacaste Marketplace opens with new business expectations

(Infocom) — The Guanacaste Marketplace (GMP) fair held last Nov. 4-5 at a Gulf of Papagayo hotel was a bit different this time around.

A tourism productions commercialization event, GMP is geared toward product development through the international distribution system. Through this fair, international buyers and sellers negotiate their services with the goal of being included in brochures and offers during the next season.

The Guanacaste Marketplace is organized by the Costa Rican Tourism Professionals Association as a way to respond to wholesalers’ interest in getting to know specific tourism destinations in the country. However, this year the activity had a slightly different twist due to the real estate crisis facing the United States. On this occasion, the fair allowed the participation of local buyers, while traditionally the event attracted only foreign companies.

Reformatted to emphasize the promotion of tourism packages to and within Costa Rica, as well as to various destinations in the Central American region, the event sought to offer wholesalers and clients more diverse products, while providing the opportunity to renew their product offerings. This year, Costa Rican wholesalers also had the chance to acquire products being offered by sellers, so that they could be later developed into tourism packages to be sold to their clients, travel agencies and tour operators — as well as to interanational buyers that take part in this event.

GMP has as one of its strengths the support of the region’s government and private sectors, which actively seek international wholesalers to develop promotional campaigns. Such support could become a launching pad for sales efforts of tour packages to Costa Rica and Central America.

Despite the popularity of GMP, this year several companies were absent as they argued that the U.S. financial crisis kept them from coming here. Despite that, the fair still attracted some 40 tourism business that operate in the province of Guanacaste, which were able to set up business meetings with some 20 North American wholesalers as they tried to place their tourism products and services.

In addition to exhibits highlighting the many tourism products Guanacaste has to offer, the GMP also included seminars that discussed the problems facing the North Pacific region of Costa Rica; payment of environmental services as a financial instrument to protect water resources; and the development plan for Guanacaste that the central government is implementing (presentation by Raquel Barrientos of the Ministry of Planning).

There were also training sessions about how to market the Chorotega region’s tourism products more effectively in international markets — this as a way to find new alternatives to the U.S. travel market, which continues to be the main source of visitors who arrive in Guanacaste.