Tourists in Costa Rica can now carry a small card containing the number of a hotline they can call to make complaints as well as get information on the currency exchange rate, Costa Rica's best beaches and other travel tips.

"The goal of the hotline is to provide fast, effective information to visitors, mainly foreigners, so they don't necessarily have to go to one of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) offices," said Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides in a statement.

The 24-hour hotline, 800-TOURISM or 800-TURISMO, will have English-speaking personnel attending tourist concerns. In addition to the hotline, the back of the card has a list of phone numbers for emergencies, including those of several countries' embassies.

ICT has printed 90,000 of these small blue cards, which are being distributed at the Immigration area of Juan Santamaría International Airport, just north of San José. They will soon be available at the Daniel Oduber International Airport in the Guanacaste city of Liberia, and the institute hopes to offer them at ports and land border crossings, Benavides said.

Also in the works are plans to print the card in Braille and print similar information on flyers to put in rental cars, the statement said.