Tourists are flocking to Costa Rica to experience the Blue Zone lifestyle, which promises above-average health and longevity.
And while the country's economy has grown to depend on tourism, locals say a surge in outside influences is fading key elements of Blue Zone customs.
Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula is one of five “Blue Zones” known for its residents who live longer and are healthier than other regions around the world. In this strip of land in the Central American country, local life has historically revolved around strong community ties, meaningful physical work, and a healthy diet of fresh produce and lean protein.
Longevity researchers believe these lifestyle choices contribute to residents' continued health: Business Insider previously reported that the average life expectancy in the area is 85 years.
“One of the reasons I came here is because there was almost nothing here and I really enjoyed the real Costa Rica, the jungle and everything felt very local,” Thomas Jones, who has lived in Paquera, a coastal town at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, for nearly 20 years, told Business Insider. “Obviously, as things move forward and more people come to the area and there's more development around here, it's never going to stay this way.”
As Nicoya Peninsula practices came to the attention of researchers, health-conscious tourists soon followed, and its proximity to a Blue Zone became a selling point nationwide.
According to the Tourism Satellite Account, Costa Rica's tourism industry directly contributed 4.8% of the country's total GDP in 2019. American tourists form the largest market, followed by tourists from European countries such as Germany, Spain, and France.
As tourists flock to the area, they demand more amenities, infrastructure, and food that isn't available in the region, locals told Business Insider. The country is changing to accommodate them — adding more fast-food options, building luxury hotels, paving new roads, and so on — which is in turn changing local habits.
Jones, who runs a tourism company that relies on foreign visitors to stay afloat, said it's difficult to strike a balance between making an adequate living and paying his 12 employees and maintaining the original rugged charm that drew him to the country in 2007 with his wife from Norway.
Juan Gabriel, a guide with Jones' company Bahia Rica, told BI that he grew up on a small island without electricity and has seen firsthand how Blue Zone tourism has transformed his and his family's lives.
“People back then had to live differently. They had horses, they got up at 4am to tend to their cows and finish their day in the afternoon, but that doesn't mean they were lazy,” Gabriel said. “Now you can buy it at the supermarket, so why not?”
Gabriel said she's grateful for her childhood upbringing that taught her to be resilient and adaptable, but she wouldn't raise her children the same way, even though she knows it might be healthier for them.
Tourism in the Blue Zones has been a double-edged sword, as locals have come to rely on tourists for jobs and new development in the area: The industry brings much-needed economic stability, but that stability comes at the expense of the traditions that made Costa Rica a longevity hotspot in the first place.
Improved infrastructure means fewer daily struggles thanks to paved roads and easier access to transportation, reducing the need to walk, but it also means that the daily physical labor that researchers believe translates to longer lifespan is minimized. The addition of fast food to Blue Zone regions also means less emphasis on diets that prioritize small meals, low sugar, and lean protein.
Stanford University researchers have studied the Nicoya Blue Zones, and in a 2023 article in Stanford Medicine Magazine, David Reckoff, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health and medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine, pointed specifically to changes in transportation and the introduction of Western cuisine as reasons why the benefits of the Blue Zones are at risk.
“This generation is losing the advantages that previous generations had,” said Luis Rosselló Bixby, a Costa Rican demographer who worked on the study with Rekof. “While it was not uncommon for people to live into their 90s in Nicoya, that figure is dropping again into the 80s.”
Still, if you visit the region, you'll often see the Blue Zones as a selling point to attract more tourists.
“A lot of people use the Blue Zones for business – Blue Zone this, Blue Zone that – you know what it means, but unfortunately this lifestyle is disappearing because it was the old-timers that kept it going,” Jones told BI. “I think in 10 years or so, the Blue Zones won't be here anymore because the old-timers are dying off and the younger people aren't living the same lifestyle they used to.”
