DDP 685. J.R. DeShazo and Luis Monestel Vega. "Evaluación de la Calidad de Lugares Recreativos y Preferencias por Lugares y Actividades Recreacionales: La perspectiva de los Turistas Nacionales y Extranjeros sobre las Áreas Protegidas Públicas de Costa Rica." (Evaluation of the Quality of Recreational Places, and Preference for Places and Recreational Activities: The Perspective of National and Foreign Tourists about the Public Protected Areas in Costa Rica) March 1999. 27 pp. Central America Project Series

The quality of services in public protected areas as perceived by visitors provides further understanding on the use of those areas, and measures for implementing actions to affect the quality of the services. To this end, this paper presents the results of a survey in Costa Rica in which the opinions of the tourists were investigated. This study was conducted by the Central America Project of the Harvard Institute for International Development

In order to plan appropriately for the future of these protected areas, it is necessary to have sufficient information about the opinions of the tourists in correlation to their socioeconomic characteristics (income, education level, origin, age, etc.). This study presents that information and seeks to provide civil servants in the tourism sector with information to assist in distribution of resources for investment in infrastructure and services in and around public protected areas in Costa Rica. In addition to obtaining information about the services, it is possible to understand the activities enjoyed by the tourists during their visit to the country. With that information, the study seeks to evaluate the convenience of developing services focused on satisfying those preferences, both of foreign and domestic tourists.

J.R. DeShazo is affiliated with the Harvard Institute for International Development and School of Public Policy, University of California at Los Angeles. e-mail: deshazo@ucla.edu.

Luis Monestel Vega comes from the Harvard Institute for International Development.