Given the growing use of its vacation rental platform in Panama, Airbnb plans to offer other services such as ticket purchase, tours and paperwork management for tourists.
Airbnb executives reported that between 2017 and 2018, the number of visitors who demanded their services increased by 65%. This situation contrasts with the decrease in hotel occupancy registered in recent years in Panama.
Already more than 1000 homes are available to rent through the web platform Airbnb, and most of them are centered around the Pacific coast.
The increasing supply of houses and apartments available for short stays is forcing hotels to change their methods of attracting guests in order to survive.In the case of Nicaragua, where the hotel supply is relatively nascent and not as developed as in other neighboring markets, the efforts that businesses in the tourism sector have to make to compete with Airbnb is even greater.
Forty-nine samples qualified for the national competition, which will be used to select entrants in the international auction, the Cup of Excellence, to be held from 4 to 8 May.
Of the 117 samples that were received in the preselection stage, 49 were classified with a minimum score of 85 points. It is expected that the international auction of the winning samples will be carried out on July 1 over the Internet from Anacafé's facilities.
The Tax Authority is inviting bids for supplying a technology platform and cloud services to replace the current system.
This was announced by Carlos Munoz, chief of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT).
"The decision comes after the executive decided to conduct an "operational intervention" to increase control of customs procedures in order to increase revenue," noted an article in Elperiodico.com.gt.
The Tax Authority (SAT) owes to domestic exporters about $313 million in tax credit refunds.
This was explained by the superintendent Carlos Muñoz, adding that "... this amount represents the backlog in tax credit refunds of Value Added Tax (VAT) to Exporters and there are cases which have been awaiting payment since 2011," noted an article in PrensaLibre.com.
The Tax Authority is reviewing whether to concession the services provided by the Vehicle Registration Tax.
This was announced by Superintendent Carlos Muñoz, who told a group of businessmen from the Guatemalan Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).
According to Muñoz, the project is under analysis and in the next 30 days the results will be made known, which will specify whether or not to grant it to a private company.
In the first third of 2013 the state collected $2.111 billion, $110 million more than in the same period last year.
The figure is below the target set by the Tax Authority, which in this period was $2.277 billion, to cover the spending budget prepared by the Ministry of Finance.
Carlos Muñoz, head of the SAT, said the figure is lower than expected due to falls in the collection of value added tax on imports, income tax and road tax.
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