Costa Rica’s 28 National Parks celebrate the National Park Day on August 22nd.

The National Parks in Costa Rica offers visitors an impressive variety in wildlife, vegetation, scenery and climate. From the dry tropical forest to the “paramo” or wet desert in Costa Rica’s highest peak, visitors may have their pick as to what they would like to adventure in.

A recent study revealed the most popular parks among visitors placing the Poas Volcano National Park in first place. This comes as no surprise since the Poas Volcano is classified as having the largest crater of an inactive volcano in the world (diameter of 1.3 kilometers). When compared to last year’s 307,000 visitors, the Poas Volcano National Park had an impressive influx during its first semester in 2008 with a total of 210,662 visitors.

The second most visited National Park is the Manuel Antonio Park located in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast. Manuel Antonio National Park offers visitors tropical humid jungle vegetation and amazing wildlife. The park offers several trails which will take visitors through lush vegetation, emerald colored waters and white sand beaches. Aside from the park’s idyllic beach backdrop, nature lovers will marvel in observing over 352 bird species, 109 mammals and 346 fauna species.

As for the National Park’s third visited park is the Irazu Volcano National Park. The Irazu Volcano is a popular attraction due to its lunar-like terrain and proximity to other tourist attractions in the Cartago region.

The Arenal Volcano National Park registered a very low amount of 47,000 visitors, but realistically this number is much higher due to the fact that the volcano can observed from almost anywhere in La Fortuna and there is no need in going into the park.

Other parks in the Caribbean are more popular among the European visitors and the Northern Region Parks are slowly picking up thanks to the Daniel Oduber International Airport’s increasing traffic.

Rios Tropicales acknowledeged by the Condé Nast Awards

Costa Rica’s Rios Tropicales tour operator was named as a finalist in the Condé Nast “World Savers Awards” published in their September issue.

Rios Tropicales offers adventure trips to Costa Rica’s main rivers in the area of white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, hiking, and cycling as well as nature and wildlife tours. Their mission is to share the Costa Rican rivers, natural resources and culture while teaching conservation values.

Rios Tropicales was acknowledged, along with 37 other world companies, as a leader in social responsibility. The Social Responsibility category looked into 5 different aspects which included fighting poverty, cultural and/or environmental conservation, fauna conservation, and health. Seventeen judges had to choose from over 142 submittals and come up with the final 38 choices.

Although Rios Tropicales didn’t achieve the coveted title, its representatives have mentioned their satisfaction with being recognized by such a distinguished magazine as well as the inspiration to continue improving the world through their day to day actions.

Other finalists in the Condé Nast “World Savers Awards” included well known companies such as British Airways, Norwegian Cruise Line, Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts, Fairmont, Punta Cana Resorts & Club, Grand Hyatt Dubai among others.

The Condé Nast Traveller Magazine is well known for its unbiased reviews concerning the travel industry. Unlike the majority of travel magazines and information services, the Condé Nast’s staff prefers to travel in anonymity in order to get the real traveler’s experience.

LAS VEGAS, August 20, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE)

Oriens Travel & Hotel Management Corp. (OTC:OTHM.PK), an emerging Travel and Hotel Management Company, operating online travel booking site 128trip.com and hotel management subsidiary Hotel PURE , to introduce a new brand under the Hotel PURE line of offering call the Hotel PURE GREEN.

Recent research showed that people around the world are becoming more aware of their living environment and their surrounding air quality. No longer can people take it for granted that we can pollute the world in any which way desire without any subsequent environmental consequences. Hotel PURE has recently been approached by a number of hotels in Costa Rica and hotels in Central America that are GREEN certified, expressing their interests to join the Hotel PURE brands. After visits and evaluating some of these hotels, the Company finds it necessary to introduce a new brand call the Hotel PURE GREEN aimed at accommodating hotels that are GREEN certified or CERTIFICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM (CST), by the government of Costa Rica and other countries in the region. In order to obtain this certification, the hotel locations will have to pass a list of strict compliance which involves avoid emissions, harmful products and pollution, efficiently handles waste that it produces, uses natural, biodegradable, and recyclable products, has a water and electrical energy conservation program among other protocols that will make the hotels more environmental friendly. CST has also been acknowledged by the World Tourism Organization as “one of the programs that is rethinking how tourism is done .”

Ken Chua, President of Oriens comments, “enough damages have been done to our planet through all forms of methods that include manufacturers’ pollutions, automobile emission, power generating plants emission and other harmful pollutions that we cannot reverse, but we certainly can look to the future and start to conserve what we have today by cutting back as much pollutions as possible. That is the reason we fully endorse this program and will try our very best to promote these beautiful Hotel PURE GREEN locations to our customers looking to travel to Costa Rica in the near future .”

Costa Rica has been applauded by international organizations such as the UNICEF for its constant promotion of practices against child exploitation.  The “Code of Conduct ” has been presented over the years to the Costa Rican tourism industry in order to stop child sexual exploitation linked to the industry.

Although it is clear that not all child abuse takes place within the tourism industry, it has been reported that all foreign child offenders have been in fact tourists on business trips or recreational trips.

The Tico Resorts Hotel Company has recently announced that they have signed the Code of Conduct in which they have committed to the elaboration of internal procedures against the commercial sexual exploitation involving children.

Tico Resorts currently holds three properties within Costa Rica.  The Eco Lodge in Nuevo Arenal near the Arenal Lake in the Northern Costa Rican region, the Fuego del Sol in Playa Hermosa and the Casa Caletas located at Punta Coyote all make up the Tico Resorts properties.

By signing the Code of Conduct, Tico Resorts reaffirms their commitment in contributing to the Costa Rican ethic in which child and teenagers’ sexual exploitation should be addressed from all possible angles.

Tico Resorts has also announced that each and everyone of its employees will serve as protective agents with the sole interest of looking after and protecting all underage children.

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 15, 2008 — Oriens Travel & Hotel Management Corp. (Other OTC:OTHM.PK) (http://www.orienscorp.com ), an emerging Travel and Hotel Management Company, operating online travel booking site 128trip (http://www.128trip.com ) and hotel management subsidiary Hotel PURE (http://www.HotelPURE.com), has initiated the exploration of the possibility of future Hotel PURE locations in Panama.

Hotel PURE has recently received numerous requests from a number of different Hotels/Resorts in Panama indicating their high level of interests to join the Hotel PURE brand. As a result, the Company has initiated research into the region, to better understand the hotel accommodation market in order to facilitate these requests. Hotel PURE’s current Costa Rican-based operating team will be sent to Panama to make the initial investigation as well as visiting some of these prospective Panama hotel locations, since they are only 30 minutes away by air. Conclusions will be drawn once the head office of Hotel PURE receives all examinations submitted by the investigation team of their findings in Panama.

Panama, known for its famous Panama Canal connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, currently draws a significant number of tourists to the country. With the facts at hand, Oriens believes adding Hotel PURE locations into Panama will no doubt help boost the image of Hotel PURE brand as well as helping these potential hotel candidates with their international exposure.