The Guanacaste coast in Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful Pacific coastlines in the Americas. The area really exploded with the advent of new roadways and a new airport with direct flights from the US.  Sound familiar to what we are experiencing in Chiriqui?  Well, things are heating up again with development in our neighboring Costa Rica.  Hopefully they can find enough workers to fill the new positions that will open up.

Six new hotels will be opening in the province of Guanacaste between late 2013 and mid-2014.  An article in Nacion.com reports that “a report commissioned by this newspaper with the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) determined that, as expected, four major projects will be opening in Guanacaste starting from the end of this year,.”

It is expected that December this year will see the opening of the hotels Vista del Mar, with 58 rooms, and Andaz Papagayo in Liberia, with 153 rooms. By July of 2014 it is expected that the Meliá Papagayo, with 379 rooms, will open in the Canton of Carrillo. In November 2014 Dreams Las Mareas will open in Salinas, which is a hotel with 447 rooms.

In addition, the hotel Enjoy Group, a boutique hotel with 86 rooms located in Carrillo will open in December. There will also be another Courtyard by Marriott opening in the Gulf of Papagayo, which will have 360 ??rooms and will open in mid-2014.

Alvaro Conejo, president of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (Caturgua), said the strong demand for labor in the next few years is a cause of concern for employers, who do not know if they will be able to adequately fill vacancies and do so on time.

Conejo said the demand for skills will begin to be felt at the end of 2013 and early 2014.