By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas, of the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Expotur, the tourism marketplace, opened formally Tuesday with an emphasis on sustainable development and the creation of adequate infrastructure.

Óscar Arias Sánchez, the new president, attended the opening at the Museo de los Niños as did Carlos Ricardo Benavides the new head of the Instituto Costarricence de Turismo.  ( ICT )

At the Herradura Conference Center west of San José workers were busy turning the area into min-jungles or rain forests for promotional stands. The numbers are about the same as last year. Nicaragua will be represented, as will Guatemala and several other tourism competitors.

Tourism has taken it on the chin in 2005 with roads in terrible condition due to an overactive Atlantic hurricane season. Security also is a concern, tourism officials agree. Both Canada and the United States have issued warnings to their citizens.

Tuesday also marked the close of the 2005 cruise ship season.  Some 38,000  fewer cruise ship passengers touched Costa Rican soil and 23 fewer ships visited Limón or Puntarenas on the Pacific. In all 192 cruise ships visited with 280,000 passengers, most of whom spent a few hours in Costa Rica.

Tourism vendors will spend two days at the conference center in appointments with tourism wholesalers.

Arias in his campaign platform promised increased security for tourism with the creation of a tourist police. He also promised a major effort to fix the roads. So far there have not been clear proposals, but the administration is less than two weeks old.