The agencies BBDO, BB & M, and the consortia Team Tourism 16-17 and La Union Zaga submitted similar bids for $4.5 million to design and produce the country's tourism campaign.
From a statement issued by the Tourism Authority of Panama:
The Tourism Authority of Panama, held on Monday, March 28, tender act 2016-1-45-0-08-AV-008 805 to select an advertising agency to be in charge of the design and production of a national tourism advertising campaign.
At the request of the bidders the Tourism Authority has extended the deadline for submission of bids for the domestic tourism promotion campaign, until 12 February.
The agencies Publicuatro Ogilvy & Mather, Starcom MediaVest Group, Cerebro JCM Publicidad, R Publicidad/ BBDO, Nexos Publicidad and BBM Publicidad, who are interested in bidding for the right to develop the campaign to promote domestic tourism, have asked the Government for more time to prepare their proposals.
If growth in the number of tourists doesn’t reach 25% per year, hotel occupancy will fall from the 74% seen in the first quarter of 2001, to just 50% over the coming years.
Panama is growing and so are the number of hotels, which in 2012 will be offering over 27 thousand rooms.
The warning comes from the Panamanian Association of Hotels (Apatel), whose president, Sara Pardo, noted of the sector that, "supply is growing faster than demand. "
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IBM sued Ogilvy & Mather for overcharging its services for millions of dollars.
The recent lawsuit against Ogilvy & Mather by IBM for overbilling highlights the need to maintain a tight control over contracted advertising agencies. John Siefert, chairman of Ogilvy, acknowledged that the agency had overbilled IBM in the purchase of digital media.