The Costa Rican government in an effort to expand on the success of its Ecotourism movement has some big plans for the Osa peninsula. President Oscar Arias announced Costa Rica’s third international airport is scheduled to break ground in 2010. The Sierpe International Airport in the Osa Peninsula will likely be completed in 2013.
In November 2005, the Technical Council of Civil Aviation, CETAC, determined that a site near Sierpe south of Cortès ("Valle de Sierpe") constituted the most favorable location for the new international airport. The report indicated that an area of 1500 hectares (6 kilometers by 2.5 kilometers) is required to accommodate the larger aircraft such as Boeing 747 or Airbus 340. This would mean an airport substantially larger than the airport Juan Santamaría of San José and the majority of other Latin American airports.
In its first phase, the airport is planned to have a terminal and runway of 1,800 meters long by 30 meters wide to accommodate airplanes of SANSA and Nature Air with up to 50 passengers. In subsequent phases the runway will be extended to allow international Boeing 737 aircraft. Thereafter, the airport may be provided with a second runway to receive even larger planes.
The airport’s completion will likely usher in a wave of tourism; developers eager to cash in could send property values skyrocketing. Liberia, in the Guanacaste Region, had seen property values quadruple. Liberia, a city in northern Costa Rica, can serve as a guide for real estate investors about the opportunities an international airport can create. Liberia’s Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport helped usher in a sharp rise in tourism and investments after major American airlines began to offer flights there from New York, Miami and Atlanta. Roughly 300,000 people were arriving annually by 2005, compared to previous years’ totals of 50,000, according to The New York Times.
There are other infrastructure projects slated to compliment the airport and the flow of tourists into the area and over to Drake Bay. A million dollar bridge is proposed to be built across the Sierpe river connecting the town of Sierpe with the Osa Peninsula. A new gravel road with bridges across many streams will wind up and down the mountainous region directly connecting Drake Bay with the town of Sierpe. Right now the only way tourists can get to Drake Bay from Sierpe is by boat.
This will be an amazing road traversing some beautiful territory and add to the allure of the area. Currently there is only one lodge located along that road from Sierpe to Drake Bay; you guessed it, Sabalo Eco Lodge. This property has plenty of room for expansion to meet the demand that will come with the huge increase of tourism to the Osa Peninsula in the coming years. The easy accessibility that is coming and the increase in tourism traffic will ensure that this property will be an increasing asset in the years ahead. It will also allow for a successful future as an eco lodge business due to Costa Rica’s unprecedented plans for this area’s expansion into the ecotourism industry.
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