TICOS: Study the History and Culture of Costa Rica

What position do you hold at Visit Costa Rica?

Gabriela: I am the president and I founded the company 15 years ago.

Did YOU study abroad?

Gabriela: No, unfortunately! All my studies were in Costa Rica.

What does the future hold for Visit Costa Rica - any exciting new programs to share?

Gabriela: We are getting into another level of business, although we continue to do custom made personalized study abroad travel, we are starting to work with Chinese universities and we expect our business to grow a lot.

What about the future of the industry? How do you think study abroad and international education will change over the next 10 years?

Gabriela: I believe universities now prefer more and more to work with small companies such as mine, where students are taken care of. Sometimes, with their other universities partners, students are more on their own and more exposed to security issues.

Which country do you think is an underrated study abroad destination? Conversely, do you think there is a country which is overrated?

Gabriela: I really only know the Latin American market! Costa Rica has the highest marks for many reasons: It is the only country where you can see the three types of tropical forests in one week (making it a paradise for Biology students), the human rights ( no army), educational and economical level makes it a great destination for Business students as well as for Human Development Studies, and finally due to security reasons in Mexico and Ecuador, Spanish programs are growing immensely.