Promises of happier, healthier living drove tourists to Costa Rica in droves. Now, locals say the Blue Zone lifestyle is dying out.

10.08.2024 - 13:02 / insider.com

Tourists are flocking to Costa Rica, with visitors trying to get a taste of the Blue Zone lifestyle that promises better-than-average health and longevity.

And while the country's economy has grown to depend on the tourism industry, locals say the surge in outside influence has resulted in key elements of the Blue Zone's customs fading away.

Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula is one of five "Blue Zones" known for residents who live longer and healthier lives than others around the world. In this sliver of the land in the Central American country, locals' lives have historically centered on strong community ties, purposeful and physical daily work, and a healthy diet of fresh produce and lean proteins.

Longevity researchers attribute these lifestyle habits to residents' lasting wellness. Business Insider previously reported that the average lifespan in the area is 85 years old.

"One of the reasons we came here was because there was so little here, and we really enjoyed the real Costa Rica — the jungle and everything being very local, things like that," Thomas Jones, who has lived in the coastal town of Paquera, at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, for nearly 20 years, told Business Insider. "Of course, it's never going to stay like that as things progress and there's more people coming into the area, more developments coming up around here."

Once the habits of the Nicoya Peninsula became the subject of researchers' focus, health-conscious tourists quickly followed — and being adjacent to a Blue Zone became a selling point around the country.

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Tourism in Costa Rica directly accounted for 4.8% of the country's total GDP in 2019, according to the Tourism Satellite Account. American tourists make up the biggest market, followed by Europeans from countries including Germany, Spain, and France.

As tourists flock to the country, they demand more amenities, infrastructure, and foods not found in the area, locals told Business Insider. To accommodate the guests, the country is changing — adding more fast food options, more luxury hotels, and paving new roads — which in turn is changing local habits.

Jones, who runs a tourism company that relies on foreign guests to stay afloat, said it can be challenging to strike a balance between making enough money to live well — and pay his 12 employees — and maintaining the original, rugged charm that drew him and his wife to the country from Norway in 2007.

Juan Gabriel, a guide for Jones' company Bahia Rica, told BI he grew up on a small island with no electricity and has seen firsthand how Blue Zone tourism has changed his life and that of his family.

"The people, a long time ago, they had to live different; they had horses, they had to get up at 4 in the