International Tourism Day, 2023: Tourism and Green Investments

Promoting mutual understanding, stimulating economic sustainability and fostering social prosperity in the sector; This is how we celebrate this International Tourism Day 2023 from the top of Rincón de la Vieja. 
At Buena Vista we explore avenues of collaboration to strengthen growth in the community, by placing people, our planet, and the prosperity of all as a priority within the scope of the company. Today we make it a reality. We have worked with strategic allies that have allowed us to develop and execute our projects. Education has been the basis, through training we have been able to add and contribute to a more harmonious world. It is clear that tourism is a leading sector of positive changes and protection of our cultural and natural heritage.  

Today we will tell you about one of these projects called "Bee Hotels". We can learn more about these small insects than we think. They live in large colonies organized in a hive and each one performs an important job. A queen lays the eggs where the offspring or larvae are born, the drones are the males of the colony, their job is to fertilize the queen, and the worker bees are the females in charge of many important tasks; cleaning the honeycombs of the hive, feeding the larvae, producing honey and wax, collecting pollen, water, nectar and propolis, and as if that were not enough; they defend the colony with their sting. 

The hotel's beehives not only provide La Comarca honey and derived products for the gastronomic enjoyment of visitors, but also function as a training classroom where the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Costa Rica (MAG), together with the engineers and human resource professionals of the company's Management Department, execute the project developed by students of the Master's Degree in Sustainable Development of the National University (UNA).
This project is aligned with the circular economy strategy that the company has placed as the backbone of the business, seeking to go beyond just protecting natural resources to regenerating the local ecosystem, educating and providing neighboring families with the means to improve their quality of life and that of their communities. At the same time, we collaborate with the protection and regeneration of ecosystems by promoting the inclusion of pollinators, education, and income generation for neighboring populations, some of whom live in poverty.

This project focuses on training families, providing them with beehives and providing timely follow-up to generate beekeeping products that can be marketed. The families have been chosen by the government institutions involved, within the geographic impact zones limited to the towns of Cañas Dulces, Buena Vista, and Las Lilas. 

The success of the project is subject to 4 key factors: 
Regeneration of the environment and communities immediately adjacent to the company.
Raising awareness among hotel employees, clients, nearby schools, universities, and hotel neighbors.
Education on the fundamental role of bees in local ecosystems.
Protection of the local flora and fauna, as well as the well-being of the surrounding communities. 

In this model there is a special interest in the value created and how to return it to society with actions that preserve the environmental balance. As a colony of bees, working as a community; tourism, the surrounding towns and the public sector, we make an alliance to expand our environmental, social, and economic scope, in line with the objectives of sustainable development.