Eco-tourism rebounds as Costa Mar enters peak season

The Costa Mar Reef Monitoring Network's latest arrivals tally shows 4,200 international visitors in the first two weeks of June, a fifteen percent increase over the same period last year. Hotel occupancy across Puerto Azul and the northern beach towns has climbed to seventy-two percent, with dive-cooperative quotas filled through July at most established operators.

The rebound marks a reversal of the pattern that has defined the past eighteen months. Through 2024 and into early 2025, off-season occupancy collapsed as heat stress and seasonal rainfall disrupted the coastal calendar. Operators shifted their marketing focus northward, toward the cooler months of December through March. This year, however, the window appears to be widening.

Marina Delgado, coordinator of the Puerto Azul Cooperative Federation, attributed the shift to improved reef conditions reported by the Monitoring Network across the central coast. "The bleaching event of two years ago has not fully recurred," she said in an interview at the cooperative's harborside office. "Visitors are returning with more confidence."