128Canopy Blog

As tourism in the province of Guanacaste in Costa Rica increases, so does the construction of new hotels, restaurants and related tourism attractions.  However, not all of these businesses take the time or the investment to commit with the conservancy of the environment.

Many hotels unfortunately prefer to take a shortcut and avoid setting up a proper system in which residual waters and other waste is properly disposed.  This type of infraction is very common with hotels located near the beach and estuaries.  These hotels find quite simple and cheap to just drain all residual waters into the estuary or the sea thus contaminating the natural environment of many species as well as swimming waters used by tourists.

The latest hotel to be closed by the Ministry of Health is the Giardini di Papagayo located in Panama Beach in Guanacaste.  Authorities have stated that the hotel has repeatedly broken the law by overlooking sanitary regulations and continued dumping its residual waters into a nearby estuary.

The hotel was shut down until it will be able to present a remedial plan for its water treatment which is to be approved by the Ministry of Health.  Authorities have mentioned that there were no guests at the hotel at the time of its closing.  In addition to the closing of the hotel, the Giardini’s restaurant will not be able to sell food either until the sanction is lifted.

Hopefully, drastic measures such as the one mentioned above will make other hotels and tourist centers look twice into their practices and make all necessary corrections for the sake of nature and their community’s wellbeing and development.

A luxurious high en condo-hotel Project is being built in Punta Leona in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast.

Punta Leona is one of Costa Rica’s oldest and most treasured exclusive vacation spots.  At just a few minutes north from Jaco Beach, Punta Leona exudes peace and exclusivity due to its well maintained environment.

The project has been named Limoncito and will have a total of 348 suites.  The first stage of the project will begin this coming October and will have an initial investment of $5 million.  A total of 60 units will be built during the first stage and units will sell for an approximate $200 thousand.  The penthouses, however, will sell for an approximate $1 million.

The Limoncito project will be located on a 54 acre property from which only a 10% will be used for construction.  The investors wish to maintain the property with as much green areas as possible.  Buildings will be surrounded with exuberant tropical gardens and ample views to the ocean.

Residents of the Limoncito Condo – Hotel project will also have exclusive access to swimming pools, tennis courts, terraces, club house, mini golf courses as well as volleyball and other recreational sport areas.

One of the main interests in this project is to allow for people to get in touch with nature.  This is why they have also included several trails and hiking areas as well as a future butterfly farm and a Red Macaw nesting center.

Punta Leona was chosen for the Limoncito project due to its community’s strong commitment with environmental protection issues.  A total of 30,000 trees have been planted in Punta Leona over the last couple of years as well the inclusion of environmental education programs and projects.

LAS VEGAS, August 20, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE)

Oriens Travel & Hotel Management Corp. (OTC:OTHM.PK), an emerging Travel and Hotel Management Company, operating online travel booking site 128trip.com and hotel management subsidiary Hotel PURE , to introduce a new brand under the Hotel PURE line of offering call the Hotel PURE GREEN.

Recent research showed that people around the world are becoming more aware of their living environment and their surrounding air quality. No longer can people take it for granted that we can pollute the world in any which way desire without any subsequent environmental consequences. Hotel PURE has recently been approached by a number of hotels in Costa Rica and hotels in Central America that are GREEN certified, expressing their interests to join the Hotel PURE brands. After visits and evaluating some of these hotels, the Company finds it necessary to introduce a new brand call the Hotel PURE GREEN aimed at accommodating hotels that are GREEN certified or CERTIFICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM (CST), by the government of Costa Rica and other countries in the region. In order to obtain this certification, the hotel locations will have to pass a list of strict compliance which involves avoid emissions, harmful products and pollution, efficiently handles waste that it produces, uses natural, biodegradable, and recyclable products, has a water and electrical energy conservation program among other protocols that will make the hotels more environmental friendly. CST has also been acknowledged by the World Tourism Organization as “one of the programs that is rethinking how tourism is done.”

Ken Chua, President of Oriens comments, “enough damages have been done to our planet through all forms of methods that include manufacturers’ pollutions, automobile emission, power generating plants emission and other harmful pollutions that we cannot reverse, but we certainly can look to the future and start to conserve what we have today by cutting back as much pollutions as possible. That is the reason we fully endorse this program and will try our very best to promote these beautiful Hotel PURE GREEN locations to our customers looking to travel to Costa Rica in the near future.”