by Rod Hughes
Every souvenir bought by a tourist at an airport duty-free store means more support for social welfare by the government agency IMAS. And sales set a new high last year, 21% more than in 2006, reports the daily La Nacion.
The sales go to support orphanages, senior citizen homes, indigent shelters, development programs such as those for small businesses run by single mothers as well as to provide basic needs for poor families.
This has been the case for the past decades but a new law means that less goes into the general government coffers and more to IMAS. The welfare agency still must share 20% of the overall profit with the Civil Aviation agency that oversees the airports.
Two new stores at the international airport near Liberia are accounting for a boost in sales. That airport brings in newly-established routes of Air Comet (Spain), Best Choice (Britain), Spirit and Frontier (both U.S.) carrying tourists directly to the beaches and resorts on the north Pacific coast.
A novel plan has boosted sales of restricted goods (liquor and perfimes) which are delivered to the door of the plane. (New security restrictions prohibit carry-on items such as shampoo, perfume and liquor. This rule has existed ever since British police foiled a terrorist attempt in 2006 to bring down aircraft by hiding explosives in these items. IMAS noted a sharp drop in income from the stores immediately after the measure went into effect.)
But new marketing plans are in place, leading IMAS to look forward to a bright 2007. One is to buy a bottle of liquor and get a 1/4 bottle free. Another is buy three and get four units in other products. For a government heavily influenced by a socialist bent in the past, this amounts to a revolutionary idea. In the past, not only with the government, the commercial philosophy has been (except in specialized fields such as construction materials), if one unit costs such and such, then three will be three times the price.