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 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 was 85 years old.
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"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 BI. "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. In 2021, American tourists made 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 BI. 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.
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Jones, who runs a tourism company that relies on foreign guests to stay afloat, said it could 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 had seen firsthand how Blue Zone tourism had 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 morning to take care of the cows, and then in the afternoon, they'd finish their day, but they didn't have a lazy life," Gabriel said. "Now, if you can buy it from the supermarket, why not?"
Gabriel said he was grateful for his upbringing, which taught him to be resilient and adaptable —but he said he wouldn't be raising his kids the same way, even though he knew it might be healthier for them.
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Blue Zone tourism has become a double-edged sword since locals have grown to rely on tourists for jobs and new development in the region. The industry provides much-needed financial stability, but with that stability comes the sacrifice of traditions that made Costa Rica a longevity hot spot in the first place.
Improved infrastructure means less of a daily grind because of the paved roads and easier access to transportation services, so there's less need to walk — but it also means that the daily physical labor that researchers think leads to a longer life is minimized. The addition of fast food to the Blue Zone area also means there's less of an emphasis on the diet that prioritizes small portions, low sugar, and lean proteins.
Researchers from Stanford have studied the Nicoya Blue Zone. In a 2023 article in Stanford Medicine Magazine, David Rehkopf, an associate professor of epidemiology and population health and of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine, specifically cited the changes in transportation and the addition of Western foods as reasons the Blue Zone benefits were at risk.
"These people are losing the advantage seen by previous generations," said Luis Rosero-Bixby, a Costa Rican demographer who did research with Rehkopf. "It's not uncommon to see people in Nicoya live to be in their 90s, but we're seeing that number slip back down into the 80s."
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Still, if you're in the region, you'll probably see a lot about the Blue Zone as a selling point driving more tourism.
"A lot of people are using it for their business — Blue Zone this, Blue Zone that — I'm sure they know what it means, but the lifestyle is something that's fading, unfortunately, because it was all the old-timers keeping it alive," Jones said. "I think in about 10 years, there's gonna be no more Blue Zone here because the old ones are going to die off, and the young ones don't live the same lifestyle."
