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Presidential Challenge Brings
More Tourists To Samara Beach
(InfoWeb Press) Tourists the world over came
to Guanacaste to live to the extreme their
passion for sports fishing. The Presidential
Challenge tournament took place this past
5th, 6th and 7th of March at Samara.
The event was an important window of
exposition for the tourism in Costa Rica and
a recovery for the local economy of the
zone.
According to statistics of the Costa Rican
Confederacy of Tourist Fishing (Fecopt by
its acronyms in Spanish), last year sport
fishing brought 85,636 tourists into the
country. Said figures show a recovery of 12%
in comparison to 2008. Consequently this
year´s call-out is not yet to be ruled out
as a success.
Mario Gutiérrez, one of the associate
sponsors of the event, indicated that upon
understanding the significance of this
activity, is was programed in such a way
that it was carried out in a respectful
manner to all marine resources, the
environment and paying close attention to
the care of all participants.
"Is a very attractive event, where thousands
of tourists interact with locals,
furthermore those who participated lived
intensely the emotions that sport fishing
provides. In this opportunity, the diversion
of casting fishing lines out onto the open
sea, reached Guanacaste", declared Gutiérrez.
The Presidential Challenge is considered to
be one of the most important tournaments
worldwide, in its category. Each year the
event gathers national sportsmen and foreign
experts of sports fishing.
In our country, this sport is carried out
using responsible practices. The organizers
explained that once the capture of a fish is
achieved, the fish should then be returned
to the sea. The liberation fishing law
"catch and be release" allows for the
conservation of the species.
For this reason, the use of special baits
and hooks especially designed to prevent
injury to the fish is promoted.
"The Presidential Challenge positions Costa
Rica, on a worldwide scale, as a tourist
destination recognized for the healthy
practice of this sport", added Gutiérrez.
Non-residents tourists that arrived to the
country, exclusively to practice the sport,
represented, in the 2009, 6.48% of total
arrivals at the airports of Alajuela and
Liberia. According to the Costa Rican
Institute of Tourism, this type of visitors
leave more dividends than the average
tourist.
The Costa Rican Institute of Tourism or ICT,
considers that the natural beauty of the
beaches of the Pacific, and the conditions
only offered by these waters, attract
practitioners of this sport, who generally,
form part of a segment of the population
that has a high purchasing power and thus
their expenditures are greater than that of
the habitual tourist.
Sports fishing is an activity that combines
skill, patience and the satisfaction of
getting rewarded for your effort during hot
shifts amidst the sizzling summer weather,
in the middle of sun and sea.
Participants see their efforts crowned when
they manage to find the fish with the
greatest measures, which, once registered in
the data of the competitors or by camera, is
then returned to its marine waters as a
means of avoiding negative impacts brought
upon its habitat.
Sports fishing heads the list of tourist
sports in our country, since the marine
biodiversity we boast about creates an ideal
habitat capable of harboring high
concentrations of billfish during the entire
year. |
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