  Costa Rica is number 10 of the top 25 countries where Americans choose to study abroad. - A.M. Costa Rica illustrative photo - |
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 Published Friday, December 4, 2020 Students
abroad may be
a good deal for hotels By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The wave of covid-19 virus infections has been especially painful for landlords and hotel operators in Costa Rica. Travel and tourism came to a halt, and many firms are now facing looming debts. Elsewhere the crisis is seen as an opportunity. In Texas, three Princeton graduates plan to bring together U.S. college students who already are taking their classes electronically. The commercial venture, called U-Experience, took over a lakeside resort designed to bring “currently enrolled university students together on a single campus, providing a community for students whose courses have moved online and would otherwise be taking them at home.” According to the program, the first semester is designed for 150 such students who will be locked down in the luxury hotel for the duration semester. There the students will enjoy the social and community life they missed when their home institutions opted for online education and pay nearly $10,000 a semester to do so. The firm's founders say that their business model benefited from the virus emptying traditional campuses, but online education is growing anyway and is expected to continue to do so. In Costa Rica, an unknown number of those listed as tourists actually are workers who enjoy the country's fabled climate while commuting electronically to their jobs in other countries, mainly the United States. U.S. citizens also enjoy certain income tax breaks when working outside their home country. Still, the country's tourism organizations have not strongly promoted Costa Rica as an online employment paradise, and the nation's immigration rules do not include a category for these individuals. Most become what is known as a perpetual tourist dashing in normal times to adjacent countries to renew a tourism visa. Costa Rica also is missing the boat on collecting money from these foreign residents who technically would be subject to local income tax rules. The money-hungry tax agency has not taken any steps to collect from foreign online workers mainly because the salaries typically are paid to offshore accounts. In November, the 2019 survey of International Exchange Activity in the United States, known as Open Doors, revealed that Costa Rica is number 10 of the top 25 countries where Americans choose to study abroad. This position places Costa Rica as the first destination in Latin America, with a total of 8,333 U.S. citizens studying in the country, above Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile. In addition, the study shows that in 2019 a total of 1,240 Costa Ricans chose to pursue university studies in the United States, a figure that represents an increase of 7.2% compared to 2018, when 1,157 Costa Ricans were studying in the U.S. This increase was the highest among Latin American countries with at least 500 students in U.S. universities. In Costa Rica, the U.S. Embassy has been promoting programs for Tico students to get scholarships for U.S. universities. Open Doors survey reveals that, for the fifth year in a row, the U.S. received more than one million international students. During the academic year 2019-2020, 1,075,496 students were received, which represents 5.5 percent of all students pursuing higher education. According to the Embassy in Costa Rica, the U.S. remained the main destination for new international students. The data reflected in the Open Doors survey in 2019 were not affected by the global health crisis caused by covid-19 because the study was conducted before the pandemic began. ------------------------------ What have you heard of hotels offering special rates to U.S. citizens studying in Costa Rica? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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