JetBlue, the American budget airline, made its first non-stop San Jose – Orlando, Florida, flight on Thursday. The airline has begun regular service at a time when tourism to Costa Rica is down.

Tourism officials say that arrivals at both the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) and the Daniel Oduber (Liberia) airports are down 11% over the same period last year.  They say the drop is a reflection of the world economic crisis and the effect on Costa Rica’s primary tourism market, the United States.

The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo has been working at attracting tourists from Europe and Latin America. However, the lack of direct flights to and San Jose impedes attracting some visitors.

Tourism minister, Ricardo Benavides, says that you can get to and from San Jose to anywhere indirectly…no shit. However, this adds more time to the trip and a direct flight is more preferred by visitors.

To that end, Benavides said he has been working to attract more airlines with direct flights to the country. Currently, Iberia provides direct flights between Madrid and San Jose. From Latin America, Taca offers direct flights to Bogota.

To spur travel on its route, JetBlue is offering, until April 8th, flights at us$73 dollars, one way. for travel between April 14 and 17. The regular one way price is us$79