For years, Costa Rica's tourism story centered on San José and the Central Valley. That's shifting fast. More and more travelers — and more and more buyers — are heading straight for Guanacaste's beach towns, and the numbers behind that shift are worth understanding if you're thinking about property here.
Liberia's Airport Is Booming
Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia — the gateway to Guanacaste — just posted its strongest first quarter ever, moving over 793,000 passengers in Q1 2026, up 12% year-over-year. From January through May 2026, arrivals hit 525,751, a 14.6% jump compared to the same period in 2025. Canadian travel is leading the surge, up more than 33% year-to-date, and 97% of the airport's passengers now originate from North America.
This isn't a one-off spike. Costa Rica's overall air tourism growth is increasingly being pulled toward Guanacaste's beach destinations — Tamarindo, Nosara, Playas del Coco, Papagayo, Flamingo, and Santa Teresa — rather than the Central Valley.
Infrastructure Is Catching Up
To keep pace, Liberia's airport is in the middle of a $6 million (roughly ₡7 billion) modernization project, adding a VIP lounge, a private aviation terminal, expanded parking, and upgrades to Gate 5 — with the goal of doubling capacity for private aircraft. The work is scheduled between the third quarter of 2026 and the first half of 2027. That's a meaningful, publicly-backed bet on continued growth in this corner of the country, not just a short-term tourism bump.
What This Means for Real Estate
Real estate tends to follow rooftops and runways, and Guanacaste is no exception. Playas del Coco and Playa Hermosa, Flamingo and Potrero, and Samara are currently the fastest-appreciating zones in the region, with forecasts in the 7–12% annual range — and proximity to Liberia's airport is one of the biggest reasons why. Coco in particular benefits from the combination of airport access, an established expat community, and consistent long-term rental demand, which makes it attractive both to people relocating full-time and to investors buying rental property.
The Window Right Now
Despite all this growth, Guanacaste is still leaning toward a buyer-friendly market in 2026, with more inventory available than in a typical balanced market. That combination — strong, well-documented long-term growth drivers paired with a market that hasn't fully caught back up on price — is the kind of window that doesn't usually last forever.
If you're curious what this growth looks like on the ground in a specific neighborhood, or want to talk through whether now makes sense for your plans, I'm happy to walk you through it.