Costa Rica has managed to translate its thriving coffee and macadamia nut industries into active tourist attractions.
property, officials are quick to point out
that these are working farms, often located
hundreds of miles from the nearest visitor
attraction.
“These are new types of offerings,”
Cornejo said. “There’s an adjustment to be
made in mindset.”
Soledad Rubio, the general manager of
Rancho Hato Viejo, is among those work-
ing to meld the needs of a busy farm with
the interests of visitors. Situated on 425
acres, Hato Viejo is home to several hun-
dred cows, horses and chickens — soon to
be joined by a recurring cast of overnight
human guests, if all goes as planned. In
December, the farm will conduct a soft
launch of 14 guest cabins, each with two to
four guestrooms. The new construction is
the latest in Rubio’s efforts to capitalize on
what she says is growing traveler curiosity
about working farms like hers.
“People themselves are telling us what
they want,” Rubio said. “So we have just
been working to meet their needs.”
And those needs seem to be mounting.
While local school groups have tradition-
ally comprised a large chunk of visitors to
farms like hers, Rubio says about three-
quarters of her visitors now hail from out-
side of Panama. Among the farm’s offerings
are full-day tours where visitors milk cows,
feed chickens, stroll through palm tree
plantations and learn about local medicinal
plants. (Tours are $35, in keeping with the
prevailing rate at similar properties. Hato
Viejo’s cabins have not yet been priced,
though tourism officials say accommoda-
economic reliance on tourism.
“There is certainly an increased interest
in agritourism in Costa Rica,” said Revelo,
who credits that interest to “the popularity
of our sustainable tourism and ecotourism
initiatives. We like to see this form of tour-
ism as a hybrid of the two, something we
like to call agro-ecotourism, where tourists
can visit rural communities and interact
with the surrounding environment.”
That feeling of being close to nature, said
Revelo, resonates at a time when people are
seeking out more “personal experiences …
opting for a quiet and intimate stay on a
farm, away from the hustle and bustle of
the big city.”
Visit the Panama Tourism Authority at
www.visitpanama.com and the Costa Rican
Tourist Board at www.visitcostarica.com.
Horseback riding on a Panama agricultural tour.
tions at accredited working farms usually
run in the range of $110 per person, with
meals and farm tours included.)
“It’s been a slow evolution because agricultural tourism is a new product in
Panama,” said Rubio, whose property was
originally certified for tourism in 2008. “At
Rancho Hato Viejo, we’ve gone slowly, but
we’ve been improving the quality of our
services. We’re still in diapers.”
Costa Rica loves agritourism
No longer in the baby stages of agritourism is Panama’s neighbor, Costa Rica,
which over the last two decades has managed to translate its thriving coffee and
macadamia nut industries into active tourist attractions. A standout: the Traditional
Farm Tour, a beautifully tended macadamia farm and coffee plantation located
halfway between the capital of San Jose and
the coastal town of Limon.
The robust level of development of Costa Rica’s agritourism offerings isn’t surprising, given the tiny nation’s long-standing
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NOVEMBER 7, 2011
