Rocking times over, tourism slump has Costa Rica singing the blues

You won't believe me, but the music metaphor wasn't my idea but my editor's. But anyways, here's my story (as promised) about how the economic slowdown is taking its toll on the tourism industry in Costa Rica. I've posted the first few paragraphs, click on the link for the whole story:

On a Saturday night in Puerto Viejo in late January, Rocking J's is packed. The hostel, a popular destination for backpackers and budget travelers on the Caribbean, teems with twenty-somethings shouting and laughing, kicking back with a beer after a long day of surfing and tanning on the beach.

Unfortunately, nights like this are increasingly rare in Costa Rica these days. In interviews with nearly a dozen hotel owners, tour operators and tourism officials, almost all expressed the same concern: The global economic downturn is beginning to take its toll on tourism in Costa Rica. And many are worried, unsure when the crisis is going to end and just what can be done to weather the storm.

“We were dead in the water,” Rocking J's owner Joseph John Korchmaros said of the slowdown that hit his hostel beginning in October, considered to be the high season in the Caribbean. “We could barely stay afloat. We didn't have a high season.”

For the tourism industry in much of the country, the high season is just beginning. But according to a poll of 66 businesses conducted by the National Tourism Chamber (CANATUR) last month, more than 60 percent of respondents said reservations for the first quarter of 2009 were down compared to 2008. Those that reported a slowdown said reservations had declined an average of 29 percent. And the number of passengers at Juan Santamaría International Airport was down 8.25 percent for the first 15 days of the month, CANATUR reported.

“Definitely, there is a slowdown,” said Alexi Huntley, commercial director at Nature Air. “We've seen about a 10 percent reduction in passengers flown. People are really shopping around; they are more price-sensitive and are comparing different providers. People are holding on to their money more, and that hurts everybody. Everyone's a little freaked out.”