Costa Rica: Food Service - Hotel Restaurant Institutional
Link to report:
The Costa Rican foodservice-hotel, restaurant and institutional (HRI) industry is being hit hard by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Customers are staying away from restaurants and not traveling. The government has taken strict measures which have limited the operations of hotels and restaurants as well as restricted international travel to Costa Rica. While 2019 was a good year for consumer-oriented products, with total revenues increasing by 9 percent to $315.9 million, the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020 led to a contraction of the economy and soaring unemployment. For the first seven months of 2020, U.S. exports of consumer-oriented products declined by 13 percent. The Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels (CCH) and the Chamber of Restaurants report their members are struggling in the face of this economic crisis. Although the government has allowed hotels to reopen, only 47 percent of hotels have done so.