Coordinator of the Career : Adolfo Chaves Campos
e-mail: achavez@itcr.ac.cr
This career is offered with the intention to form human resources certified for the rural tourism administration in Costa Rica. Nevertheless, it characterizes the education of professionals who have clear orientation that puts a very peculiar mark , among others:
• The acknowledgement of administration of tourism in the rural space should, in reality, represent an option that contributes to elevate the quality of life of its inhabitants.
• The application of the principles to sustain the environment in the promotion and development of tourism activities in rural areas.
• The practice for those who want to start a business and the successful administration of tourism enterprises for part of the non-traditional sectors.
• Respect for the integrity of the Costa Rican rural life.
• The opinion that normally only the organised communities can give aspect to the individual and group initiatives in the different moment of the productive chain that represents tourism.
• The application of a perspective of gender, equality of opportunities and ethic and human values in all and each of the activities of the institute and the academic programs in which they participate.
In this way, the educated professionals of this career are qualified to adopt an active role in the promotion and exercise of tourism as an element for the human development of the country’s rural population
Objectives of the career
Objective number 1
To form professional human resources in sustainable Rural Tourism, not only capable to design, suggest, implement and evaluate initiatives of different types, related to the rural surroundings and to recognize it as an important element for the human development in rural populations.
Objective N° 2
Contribute to the promotion and operation of the concept of Sustainable Tourism in Costa Rica, by the university’s administration/ management which is committed to the integrity of the environment and the organized and effective involvement of social and rural actors that were traditionally excluded from the benefits of tourism.
Objective N° 3
Encourage the technological innovation and the continuous improvement like strategic elements and the permanent development process and offers of tourism products in the rural surroundings that are successful and professional.
Objective N° 4
Support the participation of new social actors en the tourism activities in the rural settings, based on the individual and groups…. And in the development of the skills and competences for a better drive of the businesses.
Objective N° 5
Contribute to capacitate the public inversion of the country in the education of human resources in tourism, by the application and practice of a model that incorporates the academic levels of college universities and universities, based on the academic excellence , the social pertinence, equal opportunities and the essential education of persons.
The aim group
The aim group of the career of adminstration for sustainable rural tourism are the graduates of the public university colleges that offer carreers in tourism and include the poblation with the existent graduate who can reach this state in the future.
They are graduates from the University College of Alajuela (CUNA), the University College of Puntarenas (CUP), the Central American School for Livestock (ECAG) and the University College for the Irrigation in the Dry Tropics (CURTS), who can accede to continue their career in the Costa Rican Institute of Technology, where they will receive two additional years of education, to finish with a university bachelor’s degree.
The most relevant characteristic of this aim group are the persons who have a professional vocation totally defined and who aspire to improve their condition as university graduate, reaching a professional grade in university, in this case a bachelor’s degree. This step will mean new options and work ambitions and a possibility to grow academically, a chance the do not have at this moment.