The part of this region that matters most to tourism stretches from Quepos to Manuel Antonio. It is only about ten kilometres from one end to the other, but it carries almost the entire local tourism economy.
Quepos used to be a quiet fishing village. Today it is a lively town of around eleven thousand people. Almost every tourist travelling to Manuel Antonio National Park passes through Quepos and spends some time here. In the evenings, the restaurants and cafés fill with visitors.
Manuel Antonio is small compared with many other national parks in Costa Rica, but it is one of the most visited. It is easy to reach by bus from San José, and many international tourists include several days here in their journey.
From the municipality’s point of view, tourism has been very important. When the Standard Fruit Company withdrew its plantations, the local economy suffered badly. The old company houses are still visible when you drive through the area. They remind us how dependent the region once was on a single industry.
Tourism helped fill the economic gap left behind. It brought employment, customers for local businesses and new development to Quepos and Manuel Antonio.
When the fruit plantations disappeared, tourism gave this region another way to earn a living.
I know that not everybody shares the municipality’s confidence. The management of the national park is increasingly worried about its carrying capacity. This means the maximum number of visitors the park can receive without causing lasting damage to nature.
The conservationists are looking for ways to reduce the pressure or spread visitors more evenly. Their concern is understandable. If too many people enter a small park, the paths, wildlife, beaches and forest all feel the effect.
From my perspective, however, the region still needs development. Local people need work, public services require money and businesses need customers. Development always changes a place, and avoiding every impact is impossible.
The area needs development, and it may be unavoidable that something has to be sacrificed for it.
I realise that people responsible for protecting the park may see this very differently. Their duty is to nature; ours is also to the wider community and local economy. The difficult task is deciding how much change is acceptable and who gets to make that decision.
Tourism rescued Quepos from a serious economic decline, and I believe it remains essential to our future. But the argument over the park’s limits shows that development cannot be separated from responsibility. We need both a living local economy and a national park that remains worth visiting.