Costa Rica’s rainforest tourism sits inside a much larger protected-area and nature-travel system. In 2025, protected areas recorded 2,970,516 person-day visits, including 1,751,928 visits by nonresidents and 1,218,588 by residents. These are recorded visits rather than unique people: a visitor present on multiple days can appear more than once.
Contents
- Protected-area visitation at a glance
- The most visited nature destinations
- Resident and nonresident visitation
- Domestic demand for nature travel
- International tourism supporting rainforest travel
- The protected-area geographic base
Protected-area visitation at a glance
The latest complete SINAC visitation table reports 2,970,516 person-day visits across Costa Rica’s protected areas in 2025. SINAC’s SINAC en Números 2025 reports that the total was 13.7% higher than in 2024. That growth describes recorded person-day visits, not a 13.7% increase in distinct travelers.
The 2024 comparison provides a useful baseline. SINAC recorded 2,611,643 person-day visits across 42 areas that reported visits. Residents accounted for 961,998 visits, or 37% of the recorded total, while nonresidents accounted for 1,649,645, or 63%. SINAC’s historical comparison reports a 4.29% contraction in protected-area visitation in 2024 compared with 2023.
| Measure | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded protected-area person-day visits | 2,611,643 | 2,970,516 |
| Resident visits | 961,998 | 1,218,588 |
| Nonresident visits | 1,649,645 | 1,751,928 |
| Reported year-over-year change | -4.29% versus 2023 | +13.7% versus 2024 |
The two annual totals should be read with their definitions and reporting context in mind. The 2024 total refers to 42 areas that reported visits, while the 2025 figure is the latest complete protected-area visitation table located by SINAC. Together, they show a large protected-area visitor economy and a marked improvement in recorded visitation in 2025.
The most visited nature destinations
The 2025 ranking includes rainforest, coastal, wildlife, and volcanic destinations. Manuel Antonio National Park led the list with 530,277 person-day visits, representing 17.85% of the total. Irazú Volcano National Park recorded 363,590 visits, or 12.24%, and Poás Volcano National Park recorded 363,400, or 12.23%.
The next group was led by Marino Ballena National Park with 223,686 visits, or 7.53%, followed by Tortuguero National Park with 201,298, or 6.78%. Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge recorded 192,688 visits, or 6.49%, and Tenorio Volcano National Park recorded 177,579, or 5.98%.
Several destinations strongly associated with rainforest and wildlife travel also appear prominently. Cahuita National Park recorded 149,933 person-day visits, or 5.05% of the 2025 total. Arenal Volcano National Park recorded 143,256, or 4.82%. Corcovado National Park recorded 115,361, or 3.88%, while Rincón de la Vieja National Park recorded 95,431, or 3.21%. Carara National Park recorded 49,748 visits, or 1.67%.
The figures come from SINAC’s SINAC en Números 2025. Their percentages are the source’s shares of the reported 2025 protected-area total. They are useful for comparing recorded demand between destinations, but they do not measure the number of individual tourists or isolate rainforest visits from other kinds of park travel.
Resident and nonresident visitation
The resident and nonresident breakdown varies sharply by destination. Manuel Antonio recorded 419,757 nonresident and 110,520 resident person-day visits in 2025. Tortuguero recorded 163,504 nonresident visits and 37,794 resident visits. Tenorio recorded 140,341 nonresident visits and 37,238 resident visits, while Arenal recorded 118,268 nonresident visits and 24,988 resident visits.
Other destinations had a more balanced or resident-led pattern. Irazú recorded 106,481 nonresident visits and 257,109 resident visits. Poás recorded 214,127 nonresident visits and 149,273 resident visits. Marino Ballena recorded 120,741 nonresident visits and 102,945 resident visits.
| Destination | Nonresident visits, 2025 | Resident visits, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Manuel Antonio | 419,757 | 110,520 |
| Irazú | 106,481 | 257,109 |
| Poás | 214,127 | 149,273 |
| Marino Ballena | 120,741 | 102,945 |
| Tortuguero | 163,504 | 37,794 |
| Gandoca-Manzanillo | 45,679 | 147,009 |
| Tenorio | 140,341 | 37,238 |
| Cahuita | 98,020 | 51,913 |
| Arenal | 118,268 | 24,988 |
| Corcovado | 86,382 | 28,979 |
Gandoca-Manzanillo was particularly resident-oriented in the reported counts, with 147,009 resident visits compared with 45,679 nonresident visits. Cahuita recorded 98,020 nonresident and 51,913 resident visits. Corcovado recorded 86,382 nonresident and 28,979 resident visits.
These patterns help distinguish the audiences behind rainforest tourism statistics. A destination can have substantial international demand while still depending on Costa Rican visitors, and the national resident total rose from 961,998 protected-area visits in 2024 to 1,218,588 in 2025. The source is SINAC’s SINAC en Números 2025, with the 2024 comparison from SINAC en Números 2024.
Domestic demand for nature travel
Costa Rican households form an important part of the market for parks and outdoor destinations. An ICT study covering vacation behavior in 2023 and January through June 2024 estimated that 61.6% of Costa Rican families took a vacation, a day trip, or both. National parks and biological reserves were visited by 27% of surveyed families during that period.
The ICT study of Costa Rican vacation habits, conducted with more than 2,000 households in June and July 2024, reported an average of 3.2 nights away from home among vacationing families. Those families took about 3 outings per year. The figures describe the survey population and period; they are not a count of all domestic trips or a rainforest-only estimate.
Planning behavior was strongly digital. Internet and social media were used by 68% of surveyed Costa Ricans when planning family vacations. Nineteen percent of surveyed families reported taking pets on vacation. For spending, the study reported an average household vacation range of 187,887 to 212,424 Costa Rican colones, and average domestic vacation spending per person per night of 27,070 to 29,985 colones.
Accommodation represented 42% of reported domestic vacation spending, food 30%, and transport 21%. Among Costa Rican residents who took outings, 81% said they paid using savings. These shares describe reported spending allocation and payment behavior in the ICT survey, not the financial performance of individual rainforest operators.
The survey also measured preferred day-trip settings. Rivers and swimming holes accounted for 21% of mentions, while volcanoes accounted for 11%. Those preferences connect directly to the wider outdoor travel market in which rainforest trails, river environments, and protected volcanic landscapes compete for domestic attention.
International tourism supporting rainforest travel
Costa Rica received 2,661,488 air tourists from January through December 2024, according to the ICT report on 2024 tourism arrivals. Air tourist arrivals increased 7.7% compared with 2023. These are national air-arrival figures, not a direct count of tourists who visited a rainforest or protected area.
Juan Santamaría International Airport received 1,779,529 tourists in 2024. Daniel Oduber International Airport in Guanacaste received 881,289. The two airport figures describe the principal reported arrival points in the ICT account and help establish the scale of the international travel system that can feed nature destinations across the country.
North America supplied 1,936,937 air tourists in 2024. The United States supplied 1,587,138, Canada 257,395, and Mexico 92,404. Europe supplied 428,637 tourists by air, 0.8% fewer than in 2023. South America supplied 126,770 tourists, 3.3% more than in 2023.
The source uses its own arrival definitions and geography. Accordingly, international arrivals should be considered a supporting indicator for rainforest tourism rather than substituted for protected-area visitation. The SINAC person-day measure and the ICT air-tourist measure count different things.
The protected-area geographic base
Rainforest tourism depends on a broad conservation geography rather than one single forest destination. The current official inventory from SINAC’s Protected Wild Areas listing, accessed in 2026, reports 11 conservation areas and 145 protected wild areas. The SINAC protected-area system covers about 25% of Costa Rica’s territory.
The inventory figures are geographic context, not rainforest-only area measurements. They include protected landscapes with different ecosystems and management purposes. A destination’s protected-area size therefore should not be interpreted as its tourism volume.
The INEC Costa Rica en cifras 2025 listing, based on 2024 protected-area control and published in 2025, reports the following areas. Cocos Island National Park covers 5,485,352.9 hectares. La Amistad International Park covers 198,309.5 hectares. Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge covers 81,153.5 hectares, Tortuguero National Park covers 76,739.9 hectares, and Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve covers 60,685.5 hectares.
| Protected place | Area in the INEC listing |
|---|---|
| Cocos Island National Park | 5,485,352.9 hectares |
| La Amistad International Park | 198,309.5 hectares |
| Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge | 81,153.5 hectares |
| Tortuguero National Park | 76,739.9 hectares |
| Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve | 60,685.5 hectares |
Taken together, the visitation and inventory measures show why Costa Rica rainforest tourism is best understood as part of national nature tourism. Protected areas recorded nearly three million person-day visits in 2025, while domestic survey results show meaningful resident demand for parks and biological reserves. International air arrivals added a separate, much larger flow of potential visitors, and the conservation system supplied the geographic foundation for destinations such as Tortuguero, Cahuita, Arenal, Carara, and Corcovado.