• The best use of a brand design applied to the biometric Costa Rican passport implemented in 2021 is awarded.

London, November 10, 2022. The recent edition of the City Nation Place 2022 awards – an international forum that celebrates and highlights the work of country brands on issues such as communication, marketing and social networks at a global level – recognized the country brand Esencial Costa Rica as the winner in the category “ Best use of Design”.

In the category of best use of design, the project that obtained the highest rating in this international forum was the development of Costa Rica’s biometric passport carried out in 2021. In this category, Essential Costa Rica was nominated along with other brands such as Australia, India, Scotland and the Tower Hamlets district of London, England.

The design of the new passport -which entered into force in our country during this 2022- incorporates technology with biometric data of the person such as characteristics of their face, fingerprints and personal information. In addition, the essence of Costa Rica is impregnated in each of its pages, since it was designed -for the first time- by Costa Rican hands and was executed on four representative axes of the national identity that can be seen in its internal pages:

• Biodiversity: reflected in “an underwater paradise” inspired by Cocos Island, highlights elements such as the hammerhead shark, waves, turtles, corals, butterflies and sloths.
• Renewable energies: incorporates the area of the Arenal Volcano, which was chosen to highlight the wealth of the country in renewable energies, since it generates geothermal, wind and hydroelectric energy, it was also complemented with the image of animals in the area.
• Education and peace: shows our history of peace through the image of the Act and the Torch of Independence, and the importance of education for Costa Ricans, hence the image of books, schools and of course the “Pura Vida” that characterizes us.
• Talent: highlights the essence of Costa Ricans who are talented by nature, exemplified by the cart, pre-Columbian spheres, sculptures, Boruca masks, marimba, calypso and even the native Creole swing.

“Apart from being a very important technological innovation, the biometric passport represents an inter-institutional effort carried out in conjunction with the Directorate of Migration and Immigration that shows the world the essence of our country through a modern design, based on four axes that are fundamental for the international positioning of Costa Rica. In its pages we tell the world that we are home to 6.5% of the world’s biodiversity, that we use 99% renewable energy, that we allocate 8% of GDP to education and that our talent is present in each person who contributes to the country from different fronts¨. indicated the manager of PROCOMER and president of the Interinstitutional Country Brand Committee, Pedro Beirute.

“We are very proud to have won first place in this category from City Nation Place and that passport applications have increased 400% this year alone; this recognition commits us to continue working to present the world with the quality of our products and services”, said Mr. Beirute,

For his part, Jorge Sequeira, general director of CINDE, stated that “we are proud of the road traveled and the contribution that Esencial Costa Rica has given to the positioning of our country in key sectors for development and the Costa Rican economy.”

In addition, the Esencial Costa Rica brand obtained the nomination among the most outstanding finalist brands for Best Use of Data for the project “Integration of data for the measurement of the performance of the Country Brand”. In this category, Essential Costa Rica shared the nomination with Cape Town (South Africa), Denver (United States), Houston (United States), Indiana (United States), Long Island (United States), and Madeira Island (Portugal).