Costa Rica recorded 2,919,483 international tourist arrivals through all modes in 2024, compared with 2,661,488 in 2023. The country’s tourism foreign-exchange earnings reached $5,435.8 million in 2024, while the 2023 figure was $4,754.4 million. These figures from the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) provide a national view of visitor volume and tourism income.
Contents
- Annual tourism snapshot
- Monthly arrivals in 2024
- How 2024 compared with 2023
- Air travel and Costa Rica’s airports
- Land, river, and maritime arrivals
- Visitor origin and tourism earnings
Annual tourism snapshot
The ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024 reports 2,919,483 international tourists arriving in Costa Rica through all modes during 2024. The same statistical yearbook reports 2,661,488 international tourists through all modes in 2023. The two annual totals cover international arrivals and include air, land and river, and maritime movement.
The yearbook also lists 2,661,488 tourists arriving by air in 2024. That air total is presented separately from the all-modes total. A separate ICT 2023 record arrivals release reports about 2.47 million tourists arriving by air in 2023. Because the 2023 air figure is described as approximate and comes from a separate release, it should be read as an approximate annual benchmark rather than treated as the same type of entry in the 2024 yearbook.
The ICT 2024 arrivals release states that air arrivals in 2024 increased 7.7% versus 2023. The same release says about 70% of tourists arriving in 2024 came from the United States. Together, these figures describe a tourism market with a large air-travel component and a substantial U.S. visitor share.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| International tourists, all modes | 2,661,488 | 2,919,483 | ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024 |
| Tourists arriving by air | About 2.47 million | 2,661,488 | ICT 2023 record arrivals release; ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024 |
| Tourism foreign-exchange earnings | $4,754.4 million | $5,435.8 million | ICT Divisas por concepto de turismo 2024 |
The table keeps the measurement categories visible. All-modes arrivals are not interchangeable with air arrivals, and the 2023 air number is explicitly approximate.
Monthly arrivals in 2024
Monthly international arrivals through all modes varied considerably during 2024, according to the ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024. January recorded 299,194 arrivals, followed by 317,830 in February and 350,300 in March. March was the highest monthly all-modes figure in the supplied 2024 series.
Arrivals then measured 242,511 in April and 216,702 in May. June recorded 244,355, while July reached 258,942. August had 200,996 arrivals. The monthly series recorded 123,371 in September and 138,330 in October before rising to 220,839 in November and 306,113 in December.
The 2024 all-modes sequence is therefore:
- January: 299,194
- February: 317,830
- March: 350,300
- April: 242,511
- May: 216,702
- June: 244,355
- July: 258,942
- August: 200,996
- September: 123,371
- October: 138,330
- November: 220,839
- December: 306,113
These are monthly counts of international tourist arrivals, not a count of unique people for the entire year. A visitor who enters more than once can be represented by more than one arrival, and the supplied measure is specifically an arrivals measure.
The pattern shows the highest reported month in March and the lowest in September. December was also one of the larger months in the series, with 306,113 arrivals. The yearbook’s monthly values make it possible to see the distribution of recorded arrivals across the calendar without assigning an unreported cause to any monthly rise or fall.
How 2024 compared with 2023
The ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024 also reports monthly all-modes arrivals for 2023. January recorded 270,712 international tourist arrivals, February 291,152, and March 322,400. April recorded 221,573, May 199,154, and June 227,452.
The second half of the 2023 series included 239,368 arrivals in July, 182,800 in August, 105,100 in September, and 122,188 in October. November recorded 201,152, while December recorded 278,437.
| Month | 2023 all modes | 2024 all modes |
|---|---|---|
| January | 270,712 | 299,194 |
| February | 291,152 | 317,830 |
| March | 322,400 | 350,300 |
| April | 221,573 | 242,511 |
| May | 199,154 | 216,702 |
| June | 227,452 | 244,355 |
| July | 239,368 | 258,942 |
| August | 182,800 | 200,996 |
| September | 105,100 | 123,371 |
| October | 122,188 | 138,330 |
| November | 201,152 | 220,839 |
| December | 278,437 | 306,113 |
Every month shown in this year-over-year table has a higher 2024 count than the corresponding 2023 count. The national all-modes annual totals also moved from 2,661,488 in 2023 to 2,919,483 in 2024, as reported by the ICT yearbook. The table is a direct month-by-month comparison of the supplied yearbook counts; it does not add an independently calculated growth rate.
The lowest monthly count in each of the two year series occurred in September: 105,100 in 2023 and 123,371 in 2024. March was the highest month in both years: 322,400 in 2023 and 350,300 in 2024. December also rose from 278,437 in 2023 to 306,113 in 2024.
Air travel and Costa Rica’s airports
Air arrivals form the largest specifically identified travel mode in the 2024 ICT statistics. Monthly arrivals by air were 168,839 in January, 190,170 in February, and 206,299 in March. April recorded 144,234 air arrivals, followed by 132,699 in May and 152,051 in June.
Air arrivals reached 162,543 in July and 131,669 in August. September recorded 81,853, October 91,106, November 141,085, and December 176,981. These monthly air figures follow the same broad calendar pattern as all-modes arrivals, with March the highest reported month and September the lowest.
The ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024 assigns the following 2024 arrival totals to named airports:
- Juan Santamaría Airport: 1,779,529 arrivals
- Daniel Oduber Quirós Airport: 881,289 arrivals
- Tobías Bolaños Airport: 646 arrivals
- Limón Airport: 24 arrivals
These airport values identify where the yearbook recorded air arrivals. Juan Santamaría Airport had the largest listed total, followed by Daniel Oduber Quirós Airport. Tobías Bolaños Airport and Limón Airport had much smaller listed counts in the same annual dataset. The figures should be understood as airport-specific arrivals for 2024, not as visitor nationality totals or all tourism activity in the surrounding areas.
The ICT 2024 arrivals release reports 7.7% growth in air arrivals versus 2023. It also reports that about 70% of tourists arriving in 2024 came from the United States. The airport counts and origin share describe different dimensions of tourism: one concerns the entry location, while the other concerns the visitors’ country of origin.
Land, river, and maritime arrivals
Not every international tourist arrival in the ICT yearbook was recorded as an air arrival. Land and river arrivals totaled 252,010 in 2024, while maritime arrivals totaled 5,985. Both figures come from the ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024.
The travel-mode breakdown matters when interpreting the national totals. The yearbook reports 2,919,483 international tourist arrivals through all modes, while it separately reports arrivals by air and lists land and river and maritime categories. Air, land and river, and maritime entry points represent different routes into the country, so a mode-specific figure should not be presented as the complete tourism total.
Land and river travel accounted for a clearly identified part of the 2024 arrival picture, with 252,010 arrivals. Maritime entry recorded 5,985 arrivals. The supplied statistics do not provide a further split of the land and river category by border crossing, nor do they provide a port-by-port maritime breakdown here. Keeping the categories at their reported level avoids attributing unsupported totals to individual locations.
For readers planning outdoor travel, these figures provide context for how international visitors entered Costa Rica at the national level. They do not measure visits to parks, beaches, trails, protected areas, or individual towns. They are international tourist arrival statistics organized by mode of entry.
Visitor origin and tourism earnings
The ICT 2024 arrivals release reports that about 70% of tourists arriving in Costa Rica in 2024 came from the United States. “About” is part of the reported measure, so the figure should be retained as an approximate share rather than converted into an exact visitor count.
Tourism foreign-exchange earnings reached $5,435.8 million in 2024, according to ICT Divisas por concepto de turismo 2024. The same source reports $4,754.4 million in 2023. These are annual tourism foreign-exchange earnings, expressed in millions of dollars, and they are distinct from the number of international arrivals.
The two measures answer different questions. Arrival counts describe the volume of recorded international tourist entries. Foreign-exchange earnings describe tourism-related foreign-currency revenue reported for the year. A higher or lower value in one measure should not automatically be interpreted as an identical change in the other without additional spending, stay-length, or visitor-profile data.
The available 2024 tourism profile can therefore be read across four dimensions: 2,919,483 all-modes international arrivals; 2,661,488 tourists arriving by air in the yearbook’s air category; about 70% of arrivals coming from the United States; and $5,435.8 million in tourism foreign-exchange earnings. The corresponding annual reference points supplied for 2023 are 2,661,488 all-modes arrivals, about 2.47 million air arrivals in the ICT 2023 record arrivals release, and $4,754.4 million in tourism foreign-exchange earnings.
The sources use different labels and levels of precision. The ICT Anuario Estadístico de Turismo 2024 supplies monthly, annual, airport, land-and-river, and maritime counts. The ICT 2024 arrivals release supplies the 7.7% air-arrival comparison and the approximate U.S. share. ICT Divisas por concepto de turismo 2024 supplies the foreign-exchange figures. Reading each value with its source label and measurement period keeps the tourism statistics comparable without overstating what any individual measure shows.