Sex Tourism In Costa Rica

The slumping global economy is having a stimulus effect on Costa Rica’s famous sex-tourism industry, as a growing number of unemployed women — from Colombia to the Dominican Republic — flock to San José to seek a living in the world’s oldest profession.

But while business in the Gringo Gulch appears lively at first glance, some women say more men seem interested in window shopping than making a purchase. A Costa Rican prostitute named “Cindy” says many men are looking for a fantasy bar experience where voluptuous women coo and paw at them for several hours, but fewer are actually paying to go upstairs afterward.

Jacobo Schifter, a professor emeritus at Costa Rica’s National University of Heredia and author of Mongers in Heaven, an investigation of Costa Rica’s sex tourism industry, reports that the self-indentified sex-tourism mongers have created their own subculture, identity and even philosophical positions on issues such as sex and relationships.

While there are no official statistics, based on Schifter’s research, he estimates there are between 10,000 and 20,000 sex workers in the country, and 25,000 to 50,000 sex tourists who visit each year, 80 percent of whom are U.S. citizens.

As for Mayela, the Costa Rican woman who returned to prostitution after losing her factory job earlier this year, she said she is willing to make the personal sacrifice to protect her daughters from following in her footsteps.

Via Miami herald

Economy of Costa Rica: Overview

The economy of Costa Rica heavily depends on tourism, agriculture, and electronics exports. Poverty has been reduced over the past 15 years, and a social safety net put into place. Economic growth rebounded from −0.9% in 1996 to 4% in 1997, 6% in 1998, 7% in 1999.

With a $1.92-billion-a-year tourism industry, Costa Rica stands as the most visited nation in the Central American region, with 1.9 million foreign visitors in 2007,[3] thus reaching a rate of foreign tourists per capita of 0.46, one of the highest in the Caribbean Basin, and above other popular destinations such as Mexico (0.21), Dominican Republic (0.38), and Brazil (0.03).

Costa Rica used to be known principally as a producer of bananas and coffee. Even though coffee, bananas, pineapple, sugar, lumber, wood products and beef are still important exports, in recent times electronics, pharmaceuticals, financial outsourcing, software development, and ecotourism have become the prime industries in Costa Rica’s economy. High levels of education among its residents make the country an attractive investing location.

The country has successfully attracted important investments by such companies as Intel Corporation, which employs nearly 3,500 people at its custom built $300 million microprocessor plant; Procter & Gamble, which is establishing its administrative center for the Western Hemisphere in Costa Rica; and Abbott Laboratories and Baxter Healthcare from the health care products industry likewise. Manufacturing and industry’s contribution to GDP overtook agriculture over the course of the 1990s, led by foreign investment in Costa Rica’s free trade zones. Well over half of that investment has come from the U.S. In 2006 Intel’s microprocessor facility alone was responsible for 20% of Costa Rican exports and 4.9% of the country’s GDP.[9][10]

The country has not discovered sources of fossil fuels–apart from minor coal deposits– but its mountainous terrain and abundant rainfall have permitted the construction of a dozen hydroelectric power plants, making it self-sufficient in all energy needs, except oil for transportation. Costa Rica exports electricity to Central America and has the potential to become a major electricity exporter if plans for new generating plants and a regional distribution grid are realized. Mild climate and trade winds make neither heating nor cooling necessary, particularly in the highland cities and towns where some 90% of the population lives.

Costa Rica’s infrastructure has suffered from a lack of maintenance and new investment. The country has an extensive road system of more than 30,000 kilometers, although much of it is in disrepair. Most parts of the country are accessible by road. The main highland cities in the country’s Central Valley are connected by paved all-weather roads with the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and by the Pan American Highway with Nicaragua and Panama, the neighboring countries to the North and the South. Costa Rica’s ports are struggling to keep pace with growing trade. They have insufficient capacity, and their equipment is in poor condition. The railroad didn’t function for several years, until recent government effort to reactivate it for city transportation.

Costa Rica has a reputation as one of the most stable, prosperous, and among the least corrupt in Latin America.[14] However, in fall 2004, three former Costa Rican presidents (Jose Maria Figueres, Miguel Angel Rodríguez, and Rafael Angel Calderon) were investigated on corruption charges related to the issuance of government contracts, and several of the legal proceeding are still open.

Costa Rica has sought to widen its economic and trade ties, both within and outside the region. Costa Rica signed a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico in 1994, which was later amended to cover a wider range of products. Costa Rica joined other Central American countries, plus the Dominican Republic, in establishing a Trade and Investment Council with the United States in March 1998.

Via wikipedia

Add Lib: The Additive Library

User sequence and storyboard

Augmented Reality Library

Some revised ideas

Rethought the library idea, brainstormed more problems, tried to solve some.

EDIT: Old ideas

Shopping Aid

Problem/Need:
Often people want to shop at different stores before deciding on a purchase, especially for clothing items that need to match.  It is an inconvenience to pay individually at each store and then carry around an accumulating amount of merchandise.

Proposed Solution:
A new shopping experience that essentially allows a mall to function as an internet store with a physical interface.  A user “signs in” to the experience by swiping their mobile device at the door then starts shopping.  They scan the QR codes of the merchandise they would like to purchase at various stores before editing their “cart” and going to a checkout station for payment.  After a short wait their purchases are gathered and can be picked up by “signing out” at the exit.

Technologies/Materials:
QR codes, online server, kiosks, credit/debit card readers, store design,

Experience Location:
A new type of mall where shopping will become more free and convenient

Target Audience:
Shopaholics, families, parents

Keywords/themes:
Shopping experience, managing purchases, convenience, commerce

Library Aid

Problem/Need:
Libraries are sometimes hard to navigate and related books are sometimes not under the same category.  Library books are also organized under a linear structure, making searching for loosely related topics and broad reading inconvenient.  Also, not all users are familiar with the way a library is organized.

Proposed Solution:
A service that allows users to search for the book at a search station, scan the QR code, find directions to the location of the book, look into related books, keywords, and etc. in a wiki style database of information, then checkout the books or save the book list for later use.  The book entry in the database would include the standard information, a description with wiki links, a map to the shelf, a selection of books physically on the same shelf etc.

Technologies/materials:
QR codes on books, library database, search stations, wifi, mobile software,
Experience Location: Library, at home

Keywords/themes:
Education, literacy, efficiency, library, wiki

Business Card Network

Problem/Need:
Business cards are often exchanged when meeting people.  These are sometimes hard to keep track of and hard to remember when you met who.  Also, entering these details into a database of contacts can be a time consuming and laborious process.

Proposed Solution:
A network of professionals with connections based on physical interactions and exchanging of business cards.  These business cards would have QR codes printed on them, allowing each user to log the date, time, and event where they met the other user.  This would form a network of interconnected users based on exchanging business cards and this could be managed from an online interface.  Non users that have exchanged details with users would be introduced to the service.

Technologies/Materials:
Business cards, QR codes, QR code readers, online network/database, internet connectivity

Experience Location:
Business meetings, the office, at home, anywhere where business contacts are met

Keywords/themes:
Networking, productivity, business, efficiency

User Persona

In Depth Research – OpenRide

Service: OpenRide

Technologies: GPS, Internet, Cell Phone

Touch Points:

1. Driver entering the driving route into the software – in this step the driver enters his/her proposed route into the software from their current GPS location to their destination.  This is then sent to the server and the GPS updates their current location in real time.

2. Rider entering their destination into the software – the rider enters their destination into the software and based on the real time GPS location of the user, matches them up with an appropriate driver.  The drivers and riders can review each others profiles before agreeing to a ride.  This helps with safety issues.

3. Giving feedback – once the ride is over, both users can give feedback to the software on the other user, rating them on the experience.  This helps to give other users an idea of what kind of people they are riding with.

Other Services That Use This Technology:

Many services use GPS technology as part of their software.  These include previously researched services such as AroundMe, Starbucks apps, Ocarina app to name a few.  Most of these use GPS as a way to put the information in the context of the user’s location or to connect users over a network.

Other Methods:

The advantage of this method is that it is all done in real time, making rides much faster to arrange.  Previously carpools would be arranged between people at work or neighbourhoods.  Hitchhiking is also a method that does about the same thing, but there is nothing to show if the driver or the rider is dangerous.

Mobile Technologies Research – Starbucks Mobile Apps

Coffee giant Starbucks recently unveiled 2 mobile applications.  One allows users to use GPS technology to locate the nearest Starbucks, study drink mixes, ingredients, different coffee varieties.  The second allows users to purchase digital Starbucks gift cards that gives them a large assortment of benefits such as free refills and free Wi Fi.  These virtual gift cards also use fiducials to facilitate quick payment at two selected test vendors, removing the need for currency or card payment or plastic gift cards.

Mobile Technologies Research – OpenRide

Video Explaining Service

This mobile service claims to use internet and mobile technologies to help hitch hikers get a ride by matching passenger users to driver users, helping to facilitate spontaneous shared rides that reduce the amount of vehicles on the road and their environmental impact.  First the driver maps out his/her route using a GPS map.  Then when a user searches for a ride, the service connects the users based on their preferences and a pickup point and dropoff point is mapped.

Mobile Technologies Research – AroundMe

This iPhone app allows people to see all the critical services around them such as banks, hospitals, gas stations etc.  This application uses GPS technology to find your location and then searches for these services around that location with google.  It then allows the user to pull detailed information from google about each individual service location.