Company Profile 2017
1.Company history Costa Rican Trails is a company dedicated to provide authentic, inspirational journeys throughout Costa Rica. Our travel services outstand in terms of quality, creativity, educational content and diversity of experiences offered. Our love for our land, our wildlife and our people drive everything we do. Costa Rican Trails was founded in 1989, our headquarter office is located in San Jose, where we operate with a team of more than 50 dedicated experts; guides, hosts, operations and sales staff, who take exceptional care of our guests. Most of them have worked for us for more than a decade.
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Mr. Wilhelm von Breymann & Mr. Mauricio Alfaro are the General Directors of the company; both share their passion to travel and want to reveal the beauty that their beloved Costa Rica offers. Being avid explorers, has giving them the opportunity to build up access to every corner of their country and to create unique experiences and adventures for their guests. Due to our high demand of tour services, we opened operations and sales offices in Panama and in Nicaragua. This means we are also able to offer our signature brand of inspirational, distinctive experiences and high standards of service in these other countries.
1.2 Company philosophy Costa Rican Trails’ mission is to offer more than travel itineraries by creating meaningful, life changing journeys, enriching the lives of our visitors and simultaneously protecting the environment and the communities they visit.
Our Mission:
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“Provide unique travel programs that meet the best natural and cultural components of Costa Rica through a sustainable management”.
Our Vision: “To constantly seek a position of leadership, innovation, recognition and respect in the industry of tourism in Costa Rica by developing specialized, unique and high quality travel packages, in perfect harmony with nature and culture, and providing full satisfaction to our select clientele”.
1.3 Our Partners Costa Rican Trails has established lasting relationships with leading travel companies worldwide; some of them have been our allies for over 27 years. The key factors in our established business partnerships rely basically in our speedy communication, expertise and efficiency.
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Our Wholesalers partners have, in general, similar operational requirements based on guidelines, performance, and processes to accomplish the best possible experience for our mutual clients.
United Kingdom
4a
• We specialize in designing tailor made itineraries for those seeking a more bespoke or intricate journey; our hand-crafted experiences feature vibrant wildlife, stunning scenery of cloud forests, volcanoes, plentiful bird watching opportunities, tropical beaches, adventure and relaxation. • Costa Rican Trails is a proud member of The Latin American Travel Association (LATA). • Our destinations have become easily accessible from the UK, with a direct twice-weekly service from London Gatwick to San José in low season, and three times a week during high season. • We have the expertise and knowledge to better serve the UK market. • Costa Rican Trails takes part in the most important trade shows in London such as World Travel Mart (WTM) and Experience Latin America (ELA). • Once a year our team spends time in the UK and offer training sessions to our wholesaler’s travel specialists.
Australia & New Zealand
4b
• We have established an excellent business relationship with major travel agencies in Australia and New Zealand. • Costa Rican Trails is a proud member of the Australian Travel Association for Latin America (ATALA). • We know how to better serve the Australian and New Zealander clientele; our itineraries feature vibrant wildlife, stunning scenery of cloud forests, volcanoes, natural hot springs, tropical beaches and a wide array of outdoor and adventure activities. • We have the expertise to recommend the top surf spots in our three countries: Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
Scandinavia & The Netherlands
4c
• Our destinations have become easily accessible from the Netherlands, with a direct twice-weekly service from Amsterdam Schiphol to San José starting Oct 2017. Travelers are able to experience the modern city life close to tropical jungles, with a daily KLM flight to Panama City. • We specialize in designing tailor-made itineraries featuring vibrant wildlife, stunning scenery of cloud forests, volcanoes, plentiful bird watching opportunities, adventure and relaxation. • We offer the best selection of tour experiences that will fit and expand the interests of those wishing to experience all aspects of our many cultural, nature and historical sites.
USA & Canada
4d
• We are a proud member of the United States Travel Tour Operators Association (USTOA). • Our destinations have become easily accessible from the main cities of the US & Canada, with daily nonstop flights that service both the San Jose (SJO) and Liberia (LIR) International airports. • Costa Rica naturally is a top destination for nature enthusiasts, surfers, adventure seekers and tanned sun worshippers. At Costa Rican Trails we like to recommend itineraries where travelers explore all the richness of our destinations, so that they know the true Costa Rica, instead of staying in one place the whole time.
Spain and Portugal
4e
• We have established an excellent business relationship with major travel agencies and wholesalers in Spain & Portugal. • Our destinations have become easily accessible from Spain with daily nonstop flights from Madrid to San Jose, Costa Rica and from Madrid to Panama City, Panama, aboard Iberia Airways. • Over the past years, we have been participating in the major travel shows in Spain (FITUR) and Portugal (BTL) • We specialize in designing tailor made itineraries for those seeking nature and adventure. • We also offer Self-Drive Packages, perfect for those who want to discover the beauty of our destinations at their own pace.
Germany and Switzerland
4d
• We specialize in designing tailor made itineraries for those seeking a more off the beaten path experience; fully immersed in nature. Our roundtrips feature vibrant wildlife, stunning scenery of cloud forests, volcanoes, plentiful bird watching opportunities, tropical beaches, adventure and relaxation. • Our itineraries will fit and expand the interests of those wishing to experience all aspects of our many cultural, nature and historical sites. • Our destinations have become easily accessible from Germany with a twice-weekly Lufthansa nonstop flight between Frankfurt and Costa Rica starting March 2018. The Zurich-based Swiss airline, Edelweiss Air, now offers direct travel to and from Costa Rica operating twice a week too. • One company handling three destinations, same quality, customer service and effortlessness for you as a wholesaler. This will allow you to combine Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.
1.4 Our Unique Selling Points: Some of our unique selling points are as follows: Three destinations under one company: Same quality, customer service and effortlessness in one company for three amazing destinations: Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.
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Our Signature Collection Brand:
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We have handpicked a collection of premium accommodations that offer attentive personal services, lavish accommodations and exquisite local gastronomy, made with freshly picked ingredients. Our definition of luxury goes beyond thread count, marble bathtubs and 5 star-hotels, and it is more about the access to the people, places and experiences that represent all that is authentic about a destination.
Our Premium Fleet: We also provide signature transfers, which are more than a dash from point to point, a guided adventure where guests will be stopped at cultural, nature and historical sites along the way. Transfers can be delivered via private jets, helicopters or luxury vehicles. Our special concierge service: We deliver a special concierge service that helps ensure that your clients’ needs and expectations are always satisfied and exceeded. Our special service consists of the following:
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• Preferential and personalized assistance (24 hours) • Personalized welcome cards with your logo on their arrival night. • Portfolio of “Welcome gifts” • Personalized information on current special activities. Our Concierge not only assists guests but also serves as your key liaison. The Concierge will keep your sales team informed about every important detail of their client’s experience while in the country and at the end of their trip, we will send you a detailed report of their overall experience.
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Sustainable Travel: We design programs considering our environmental impact. Costa Rican Trails holds the highest level of the Sustainability Certification Program (CST) developed and bestowed by the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT). The CST is a program that evaluates thoroughly each company and verifies if it complies with a series of standards previously established for the social, environmental, and economic fields. We are committed to funding and supporting several environmental and social organizations, some of them are the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), aimed at the conservation of sea turtles and Pack for a Purpose, a non-profit organization which assist travellers to make in-kind donations that benefit communities in areas they visit, among many others.
Costa Rican Trails is a proud member of (please click on each logo for more details):
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The best team of experts: We work with the best team of high qualified professionals in the industry! Costa Rican Trails is constantly motivating and educating its staff members with different actions and incentives; and by doing this; it helps to maintain a long lasting working relationship with them. This of course makes a huge difference in our industry since they are the ones delivering the service and giving that extra added value to our clients.
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The finest and most knowledgeable guides: We are one of the very few tour companies in the region whose guides are hired as permanent staff. They have all received hundreds of ours of yearly training about natural history, ornithology, nature tracks, hospitality, archaeology, biology and more. They also have emergency medical training (CPR, first aids and other lifesaving skills). Our guides are certified professionals who would gladly share their knowledge and provide a unique experience, in a friendly and natural way, delivered with the best customer service. We believe that no matter how great a place is; only an expert guide can help you capture its hidden gems and uniqueness. We have searched for talented people with an optimistic spirit, great communication skills and a lot of passion for our region´s culture and wildlife. Experienced drivers: Our drivers are bilingual and have many years of experience. They have received medical emergency training and about preventive driving. Last year, Costa Rican Trails was certified on Road Safety by The Road Safety Council. We operate with the highest safety protocols, and our clients are covered with the maximum insurance permitted by the Costa Rican law.
We deliver the most innovative and updated sales tools: We believe that we have to provide our partners with the best-selling tools in order to help them increase their sales to Costa Rica. Some of these tools are: • Online Sales Manual: Reliable and updated information and rates of hotels, tours, transfers, flights, and travel experiences. • Yearly Educational Trips (tailoredmade): These familiarizations trips are great tools used by our partners to gain updated knowledge of the destination.
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• Participation at the most important International Trade Shows such as: Emotions, International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM), PURE Life Experiences, Experience Latin America (ELA), ITB Berlin, World Travel Market (WTM), Australian Travel Association for Latin America (ATALA), International Tourism Fair in Spain (FITUR), FESPO Zurich and IMEX America.
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• Yearly Training Seminars at your offices: Once a year we offer you training sessions for your staff in your office where we can spend more quality time and provide them with detailed information about Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
• Monthly Online Newsletter with the latest news on products, services, tours, and hotels. • Top Promotional Material: High quality photographs and film material of the different attractions as well as of the hotels that we offer. • Vast experience with assisting media and press trips to Costa Rica, Panama & Nicaragua. Our company has been selected by some of the most important publications worldwide, click below to see the detailed articles:
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Contact us P.O.Box 2907-1000, San Jose, Costa Rica. Ph: (506) 2527-6700 Fax:(506) 2527-6799 Emergency Phone: (506) 8880-6399 (24 hrs.)