Costa Rica Has More Tourists, More Dollars and a Record-Strong Colon
Arrivals are up 5.3% this year and tourism revenue sits well above 2019. The colon hit its strongest level on record, and August arrivals fell. The post Costa Rica Has More Tourists, More Dollars and a Record-Strong Colon appeared first on The Rio Times .
Costa Rica’s tourism industry is having a record year and says it is in trouble. Both of those things are true, and the exchange rate explains why.
The colon closed at 446.93 to the dollar on the Monex market on 16 September 2026. That is the strongest level since the central bank’s records began in December 2007.
The reference rate on 17 September was 443.43 colones to buy a dollar and 448.21 to sell one.
The Monex close of 446.93 on 16 September was the fifth consecutive record session.
The comparison that matters is with June 2022, when the market peak was 696.76.
From there to here, the dollar has lost about 36% of its value in colones.
Expressed the other way, the colon has gained roughly 56% against the dollar.
Both numbers describe the same move, and coverage often mixes them up.
Hotels, tour operators and restaurants take payment in dollars from foreign visitors.
When the colon strengthens, the same dollar of revenue buys fewer colones of costs.
In the first quarter, tourism earned more dollars than two years earlier. The colon equivalent rose under 2%.
That is the whole grievance in one sentence, and it is a real one.
Costa Rica received 2,191,432 international arrivals from January to August 2026.
Arrivals by air rose 5.8%. The first quarter was the strongest first quarter in the country’s history.
It was also the first quarter of any year to exceed its 2019 equivalent.
Tourism revenue in 2025 came to US$5.571 billion, about 40% above the 2019 level.
So the sector is earning more dollars from slightly fewer people than before the pandemic.
August broke the pattern. Air arrivals fell 5.9% against August 2025.
Visitors from the United States were down 13.9% in the month.
That matters because the United States supplies the majority of Costa Rica’s visitors.
June was also slightly negative. Two negative months in three is not yet a trend, but it is not nothing.
The growth this year has come from elsewhere. Canada is up 24.8% and Europe 8.8%.
Central America, the closest and most price-sensitive market, is down 5.8%.
A widely quoted number says Costa Rican tourism lost about 22,000 jobs.
That figure comes from a university study published in November 2025, covering late 2024 to late 2025.
It is ten months old and describes a period that has since turned.
The official series shows tourism employment at 167,661 in the second quarter of 2026.
That is 1.7% above the same quarter of 2025, the first annual increase since the decline began.
It is still 11.3% below the peak of 189,093 reached in the third quarter of 2024.
Short-term rental listings in Costa Rica have more than doubled since 2019.
They went from about 22,500 to 48,985 by June 2026, across 243 local markets.
Falling occupancy with rising arrivals and doubled supply is an oversupply problem as much as a currency one.
The chambers complaining about occupancy are not the operators adding the listings.
The policy rate was cut to 3.00% on 25 July 2026, from 3.25%.
The stated reasons were negative annual inflation and slowing activity, not the exchange rate.
The larger response has been in the market itself. The bank bought US$767 million between February and April.
That is within four million dollars of the record for a full year, set in 2017.
On 16 September it bought US$24.7 million in stabilisation operations, from US$58.87 million traded.
Its position is that it smooths volatility rather than defending a level, and that is the sector’s complaint.
Private-sector income in Costa Rica is heavily dollarised, from services exports and foreign investment.
