Costa Rica showcases data-driven sustainability at ITB Berlin 2025
At ITB Berlin 2025, Costa Rica is taking sustainable tourism to the next level by demonstrating how real impact can be measured and used to shape future policies.
The current Chair of the Tourism and Sustainability Committee of United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UN Tourism, in 2024 Costa Rica applied the Social Progress Index (IPS) to all 33 of its Tourism Development Centres (TDCs) simultaneously to measure the effects on local communities. This is one of the largest statistical exercises in the country, aimed at analysing the level of well-being of the population in tourist destinations, and guiding the sustainability strategy of the sector.
According to the IPS 2024 data, positive results are observed compared to the previous measurement (2017 – 2019): the overall average IPS in Tourism Development Centres (TDCs) is 72.57 points for 2024, with an increase of 0.84 points compared to previous scores. This variation represents an improvement in all three dimensions assessed: basic needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunities.
Costa Rica’s Minister of Tourism, William Rodríguez López, said of the results: “The Social Progress Index is increasing in all 33 of our destinations. Eight of them are in the upper level, and the other 25 are doing very well in the upper medium class. We are very happy with that.” When asked how the data would be implemented, the Minister was very clear on its use for shaping future strategies: “We are going to define the public measures that we will take in the near future depending on the answers that we received from each destination.”
