Strategic Actor: Noilyn Ramírez Arias

Noilyn Ramírez Arias has been living in Bahía-Uvita for the past three years and admits she fell in love with the region on her first day there!

Noilyn is currently part of the Bahia Ballena Guide Association (ASOGUIBA), where she serves as Treasurer. She also volunteers for the Geospatial Educators Opportunities for Partnership Outreach Research and Training Program (GEOPORTER).

Her business is called Costa Rica Culture Tours, which is a small tour operator that offers tourist information and provides the area’s only bicycle rental. Her business objective is to promote responsible marine tourism in the Costa Ballena area, as well as promote rural tourism initiatives focused on safeguarding local culture, values, and crafts, as well as environmental protection.

Noilyn’s interests transcend her business objectives, and she participates in many other activities within the Bahia Ballena context and its community. There, she works with the GEOPORTER project, which maps the garbage in the community. Furthermore, she works with foreign volunteers at GLA/Bodhi Surf on community projects and education in the protection of the Pacific.

In her opinion, the most important thing a community-based organization needs to succeed in their projects is to feel part of the community and to ensure that each of its members also develops that sense of belonging, in order to achieve a true team effort.

With regards to her business, Noylin believes the key to success is building alliances and networks with other entrepreneurs in the area, as well as offering innovative products.

For Noilyn, Costa Rica’s Southern Zone is a treasure still in the process of being discovered as a tourist destination for nature, culture, and adventure. It’s all part of a process that needs support from different sectors and organizations. Both INOGO and Caminos de Liderazgo have served as a window of truthful information and a bridge that will allow that information to reach different communities. Noilyn believes in the importance of the change that is being created in the way we view tourism and all that sustainable development entails.

 

Contact information:

Office phone: 2743-8112

Mobile phone: 8792-9193

E-mail: ​costaricatoursfreeinfo@gmail.com

Facebook: Costa Rica Culture Tours