Costa Rica Convention Center: events with legacy, social and economic impetus for the country

In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Álvaro Rojas, General Manager of the Costa Rica Convention Center.

What is the experience of participating in an event like this?

We have been participating not only in the Latin American ICCA but also in the world for several years now. For us as Grupo Heroica, this development with ICCA has been key in terms of the venues we operate. As Grupo Heroica, we negotiated for Costa Rica to become a global sustainability partner. We were in those negotiations and we made it happen. 

What feedback have you received at this particular event?

We come with a much more refined proposal, we understand which macro sectors Costa Rica wants to target, and we come to meet with those who have events that go well with those macro sectors. That speaks volumes about the maturity in the research we have done. We no longer come to meet with everyone as we did at one time, but with those with whom we really have an intention, and who are aligned with Costa Rica's export or foreign investment attraction objectives, which generates greater synergy in the possibility of our country becoming a hub for those sectors specifically. That makes the type of conversation different, because it is no longer about whether the Convention Center is big or pretty, new or not, but rather the focus is on what the interests are and how Costa Rica can align itself with them.

How has your experience been this year with regard to MICE, how have you experienced it?

After almost three years of work, we launched our own methodology called Carbon Clear Events By Heroica, where we neutralize the operation or carbon emissions of the operation of 100% of the events, in view of the International Financial Sustainability Standards, where companies now have to audit the sustainability issue. For this, Costa Rica and the Convention Center become an important player, because we do not talk about sustainability actions, but about impact. What is the impact on events and how do we mitigate and compensate it? This value proposition in these negotiation tables becomes an important issue. When we say that all the emissions of an event are going to be compensated by the Costa Rica Convention Center, this generates a lot of value, mainly because clients are going to have to report that and audit it, and we can provide that information fully certified.

What types of events do you host and how do you see 2025? 

At the Costa Rica Convention Center, approximately 20% of the events we had this year have themes that were not even explored or discussed before the pandemic, and this speaks volumes about a new trend. In Costa Rica, we are having events on specialized technology, sensors, 5G, artificial intelligence, among others, which were not structured before the pandemic. 

We are experiencing a transformation, for example, at an event where we had 18,000 people over three days, more than 1 million were connected playing online through what was happening in the venue. This speaks to the dynamics of convention centers, where their impact is no longer just in square meters but transcends the digital part and we believe that we are evolving towards that.

What initiatives or investments have you made to promote conventions?

We opened a training room that is not for sale, which is in the convention center with all the facilities for approximately 30 people. There, cooks train in the theoretical part, and in our kitchens in the practical part, and when there are congresses, we bring students who come to that room so that the congress can provide them with a certain type of training.

We found that sometimes the legacy issue was complex because they have to pay for an additional room to be able to connect with the community in certain aspects, and that is why we provide that service completely free of charge. We have a room that is available to the congress to train our community and it is a very practical example of the legacy. 

Another important question is what you can experience in the city of San José, which is a city that has a complete offer…

Yes. Today, more than three hotel projects are being built around the Convention Center, which speaks of sustained development in the country.

We opened a Convention Center, which is generating a revenue stream, and the private sector is seeing the benefits and therefore, more rooms, restaurants and entertainment attractions are being generated in parallel. It has been a nice and interesting development for us as Grupo Heroica. This was our value proposition with Costa Rica: to generate not only economic and social development, but also to neutralize the environmental impact, and we believe that we have achieved this up to now. We see a very promising future.

Connectivity is important. What is the volume of flights to Costa Rica today?

Great work has been done in the post-pandemic recovery area and in opening new routes around Latin America and the world, without forgetting that we are 45 minutes from the Hub of the Americas, which is Panama. The flight between Panama and Costa Rica generates very high connectivity for our region, not only at Juan Santamaría, which is the main airport, but also at Daniel Oduber Airport in Guanacaste, promoting two important destinations for us.

And now we also have connectivity for this region where we are today, for the Dominican Republic, with Arajet. It is very important so that the people of the Dominican Republic can see Costa Rica as a destination and thus be able to attract a conscious tourist. Costa Rica is not a mass destination, the connection with the environment and a much more conscious tourist is what we seek in the country and is what our region offers.