How Ford is working to promote tourism and travel around Costa Rica during long weekends with a hashtag.
If you live in Costa Rica, you may or may not know that this is holiday weekend. December 1 is Army Abolition Day, but according to a new law brought in this year to stimulate national tourism, the day off is tomorrow. It’s part of a plan to move national holidays to a Monday to create more long weekends.
Army Abolition Day itself is a brand new holiday, only created earlier this year.
So what are you doing with your long weekend? Well, if Ford Costa Rica has anything to do with it, you’re rediscovering the country under their #RedescubríCostaRica initiative.
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Backed by Grupo Purdy, who administers Ford dealerships in Costa Rica, Ford has joined forces with tourism chambers around the country to promote further exploration.
They’ve recruited three explorers to rediscover seven parts of Costa Rica. The explorers take a Ford Everest on the road and document their journeys on their social media.
“We hope this material will help you to visit incredible places,” says photographer Juan Carlos Mora, one of the recruited explorers. “Sharing it would help us a lot.”
The aim is that people get to know different tourist destinations through their photographs and videos, and motivate themselves to visit them. Ford is showing Ticos how they can use long weekends to explore Costa Rica.
So far, the explorers have been to Limon and Cartago, with Sarchi coming soon. Other destinations include San Carlos, the Osa Peninsula, Guanacaste, and Monteverde.
“The pandemic impacted all industries, but one of the most affected was, and continues to be, tourism,” said Miguel Párraga from Grupo Purdy.
“This began as a project to support the tourism chambers, but we’ve realized that, with our collaboration, some hotels have made their first reservations after months of inactivity.”
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Each destination will get a short video made about it, and a guide to download from the Ford Costa Rica website.
Each guide will feature recommendations, contact details, and activities/attractions. So far the Limon guide is ready with others coming soon.
It’s great to see organizations and individuals promoting domestic tourism during the pandemic. Even though it doesn’t make up for the massive gap in international tourism we’re missing this year, it still makes a difference. It’s still helping save jobs and livelihoods in Costa Rica.
So get out there on holiday weekends and #RedescubríCostaRica!
James Dyde is the editor of www.centralamerica.com. He lives in Escazu, Costa Rica.
