Puntarenas, Quepos, and Golfito are part of a port plan aiming to recover tourists and stimulate the local economies, all while offering visitors opportunities to enjoy these areas.
The study was done by Incop and proposes $15 million as an investment to reactivate the arrival of cruise ships at these three ports of interest. The three ports are deteriorated and need work.
It is projected that by 2040 about 230 cruise ships with 460,000 passengers could arrive in Puntarenas alone. Cruise companies love the green image Costa Rica offers but bringing tourists to Caldera, a loading port, is not attractive. Puntarenas would be a game changer. In addition to making the dock ready for crises, the plan is to create a complex to welcome visitors that would include waiting rooms, a commercial area, information desks, and food and drink sales.
Quepos and Golfito would be set up for the niche market of smaller luxury cruise ships. Golfito would be a multi-functional terminal allowing passengers and imports and exports while Quepos would be only for cruises. In Quepos, the current dock would be fixed and house small boats that take passengers from the cruises to land. New breakwaters would be needed to control waves caused by damage from storm Nate.
