The New Tourism
Business 2027
Guests stopped travelling for the room. The generic hotel stopped being a good business. And the hard part was never filling the rooms — it was building and running the place without it collapsing on you.
This book is the record of that, written from the inside: from La Fortuna de San Carlos, while one hotel goes up and another one runs.
No publication date yet.
What it is about
“For twenty years the business was having rooms. Now the business is having a reason to come — and an operation that holds up once people arrive.”
Tourism is not dying: it is reorganizing. Travellers changed what they are looking for, wellness stopped being an add-on, and technology made half of a still-manual operation unnecessary. This book covers what changed, why, and what to do differently — without romanticizing the part that hurts, which is building.
Contents
Nine chapters. None of them theoretical.
- 01
The old model is running out of air
Identical rooms, a nightly rate, and competing with the place next door over ten dollars. Why the generic hotel stopped being a good business — and what is replacing it.
- 02
Guests no longer come for the room
The bed is the least of it. People travel for what happens to them: training, recovering, sleeping well, going home different. The hotel stopped being lodging and became the setting for something.
- 03
Concept before concrete
A hotel’s most expensive decision is made before the first rebar. How you pick a theme, who it is for, and who it deliberately excludes — because a hotel that talks to everyone talks to no one.
- 04
Building: the most expensive part to learn
Contractors, permits, suppliers, and the weeks that disappear without anyone noticing. The part of the business almost nobody writes about because it is not glamorous — and it is where the money goes.
- 05
Running it with people: why systems win
A hotel does not fail for lack of effort. It fails because it depends on somebody remembering. How an operation that lives in three people’s heads becomes one that runs on its own.
- 06
The invisible operation
Housekeeping, supervision, and reviews: three jobs almost everyone still does by hand and that can now be systematized. What they actually cost per month when you count properly.
- 07
Who owns the asset
Co-ownership as a way to build tourism: fractions of a finite asset, not timeshare. What changes in the contract, in the operation, and in the conversation with whoever comes in.
- 08
Wellness: tourism paid for in health
Hot springs, sauna, cold plunge, gym, recovery. Why wellness stopped being a spa next to the pool and became the reason for the trip.
- 09
From one hotel to a network
What has to be nailed down in the first one so the second does not start from zero. Brand, systems, people, and standard: the jump from having a hotel to having a network.
The table of contents may still shift while the book is being finished.
Who is writing it
Not an observer of the sector.
Tony Alvarado builds and operates themed hotels in La Fortuna de San Carlos, Costa Rica. What is in the book he learned on site, in permit offices, in contractor meetings, and running an operation with real people.
- Bike & Bed Hotels
- Cycling-themed hotel in La Fortuna. Stage 1 operating since September 2025.
- Humaya Costa Rica
- Stage 2, under construction: 10 villas with gym, spa, hot springs, sauna, and cold plunge. Opening planned for November 2026.
- PuroMTB
- Cycling store and community founded in 2004. Where the whole ecosystem started.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
When does "The New Tourism Business 2027" come out?
The book is in preparation. There is no confirmed publication date yet and it is not available for sale. Leave your email on this page and we will let you know as soon as there is a date.
What is the book about?
How the business of building and running hotels changed: guests who travel for the experience rather than the room, the rise of wellness tourism, systematized rather than manual operations, and new forms of ownership for tourism assets. It is told from Tony Alvarado’s direct experience developing and operating hotels in La Fortuna de San Carlos, Costa Rica.
Who is it for?
Anyone building, operating, or considering entering a tourism project: hoteliers, developers, operators, and entrepreneurs in the sector. It is not a tourism theory book — it is a record of what you learn by doing it.
Is this Tony Alvarado’s third book?
Yes. The first two are "Secretos para ser un empresario exitoso", on the principles of building a company, and "Sigue Pedaleando", on faith, purpose, and resilience around the bicycle. Both are available on Amazon.
Will there be an English edition?
The Spanish edition comes first. Any other edition will be announced on this page once it is confirmed.