![\"cr-story\"](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cr-story.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In an unorthodox, but rewarding,\u00a0Alternative Breaks trip, 11 members of the International Business Honors Society travelled to Costa Rica during spring break to help local business owners develop marketing strategies that will attract more visitors to the small, tourism-reliant town of Tortuguero.<\/p>\n
Tortuguero is a lush, jungle-like village on the coast of Costa Rica that has no cars and only dirt footpaths on which to travel. It can only be reached by an hour-long boat ride.<\/p>\n
Despite the lack of air conditioning and television in town, and the fact that most of the locals are struggling to stay afloat, life in Tortuguero is good and \u201chas more to do with being in touch with nature and enjoying it as much as you can,\u201d according to junior finance major Monica Calderon.\u00a0\u201cThey have a saying, \u2018pura vida,\u2019 which means enjoying life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The townsfolk, whose businesses are mostly small, family-owned hotels and restaurants, rely on tourism for their income. Although Tortuguero can\u2019t\u00a0compete with the major resorts in Costa Rica, backpackers looking for a \u201cjungle experience\u201d in nearby Tortuguero National Park frequent the area.<\/p>\n The students\u2019 goal was to help grow the local economy by teaching business owners how to use websites like Hotels.com and Expedia.com for advertising, as well as establishing better email communication with clients and customers.<\/p>\n After a meeting with locals on their first day in Tortuguero, the students devised a plan to rebuild the town\u2019s website and make it a forum to promote all the businesses.<\/p>\n Rosa Garcia, assistant director of\u00a0Management\u00a0and International Business\u00a0administration, accompanied the students and saw the positive reaction of business owners.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u00a0are\u00a0all very excited about this,\u201d she said. Until now, \u201cThey haven\u2019t really gotten any help, and they don\u2019t know how to make a website.\u201d<\/p>\n One woman was so grateful for the students\u2019 willingness to help with promotion of her restaurant that when the young people\u00a0were distracted by the smell of her cooking during their\u00a0meeting, she brought out a plate of food, which they devoured. Although the owner offered the meal at no charge, the students insisted on paying for it and again patronized the restaurant at dinnertime.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat food and great people,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt motivated the students.\u201d<\/p>\n Since coming back to Florida, the group has put together website options for the town to choose from.\u00a0Once the official website is up and running, the\u00a0students\u00a0hope it will attract more tourism to Tortuguero, thus improving the local economy.<\/p>\n Now that a connection with Tortugeuro is established, a second trip is in the works for next year so the students can assess the town\u2019s progress and continue the work they started this spring.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great experience and great to see how excited the students were,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n![\"International](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/aB1-e1429718584920-400x257.jpg\")
\n