Hoteliers have suggested making Panama a "duty free" zone for tourists, eliminating customs and import duties and refunding ITBMS to visitors.
Faced with the loss of competitiveness in the Panama hotel sector, entrepreneurs are asking for customs and import taxes to be eliminated, and tourists to be refunded the ITBMS charged when leaving the country.
Solutions are being sought to the lack of promotion of the country and unfair competition from illegal hotels, so that the occupancy rate, which went from 70% in 2011 to 52% in 2015, can be improved.
According to the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, the occupancy rate in Panama fell once again last year, going from 56.1% in 2014 to 52.3% in 2015.
Plaza del Este held the Forum on Prospects and Competitiveness Analysis in Panama 2014 in the Hotel Westin Costa Del Este, for a selected group of local businessmen and representatives of multinationals.
The project for creating corporate offices is being developed by Empresas Bern together with Grupo Corporativo Pérez, the latter being well known authorized distributors of the Toyota and Lexus brands in Panama.
With an investment of $20 million the Crowne Plaza Panama Airport will be constructed, one minute from Tocumen International Airport.
Intercontinental Hotels Group and Bern Hotels & Resorts have signed an agreement to build the Crowne Plaza Panama Airport, which will be located on the premises of Global Business Terminal in Torremolinos, Tocumen.
The project which will open in the next 24 months, will be the closest to the Tocumen International Airport, a distance of about one minute.The hotel will have 126 rooms, a restaurant, exercise room, business center, bar and meeting rooms, however there are plans to increase the number of rooms to three thousand in the future.
Grupo Bern will invest in building an office complex near the Tocumen airport.
With 50 thousand square meters of office Global Business Terminal will have eight four-story buildings and a 176 room hotel.
"... the construction will require about 400 people during startup and other 3.000 in the overall development of the project," informed José Manuel Bern, executive vice president of the company, to Critica.com.pa.
The 200 room hotel will be developed in partnership with Westin Panama and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
The construction of the new accommodation has already begun in the "Costa del Este" area of the Panamanian capital and is expected to finish by the end of 2012.
"Osvaldo Librizzi, Starwood president for Latin America, said that Westin Panama combined with Westin Playa Bonita will enable larger groups to be brought to Panama," reports Pa-digital.com.pa.
AMP will consider today whether to grant the concessions requested for the Panamanian coast and ocean floor.
Among the concessions sought from the Panamanian Maritime Authority (AMP) are one for marine tourism and the other for the construction and operation of a dock for transferring fuel to ships. Additionally, a concession was requested to provide docking, loading and unloading of containers and the construction of a freight building, and another to construct and operate a terminal for the transshipment of oil products.