In January 2009, the arrival of tourists to Panama grew by 11.7% over the same month last year.
The increase in tourists, in turn, meant an increase in foreign currency earnings of 15.9% compared to January 2008, according to the Tourism Authority of Panama.
Nacion.com published: "Reuben Blades, Minister of Tourism, reminded everyone that the traditional visitor coming to Panama is from the United States and Canada just like its neighbors Costa Rica and Colombia. Now the country wants to focus its efforts on attracting European tourists 'because of the Euro' and because 'they stay for a longer period of time (between 15 and 28 days),' according to Blades."
The "Master Plan" should become the main tourism development tool in Panama in the next 12 years.
Along with the Tourism Law, the new offices of the institution and the publicity campaign, the preparation and execution of a Master Plan for Tourism was one of the strategic objectives established by the Ruben Blades administration of the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP).
The tourism and convention sectors agree that Panama 'needs' a competitive convention center.
The auctioning of the Atlapa convention center, which according to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance (MEF), will be completed sometime at the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 and will create range of opportunities for the San Francisco convention center.
The Panama Tourism Institute (Ipat) received 56 new hotel projects between August 27 and 30.
According to a report from Ipat to which La Prensa had access, these hotels will generate 8,207 jobs and create 5,938 rooms. If these new projects are added to those that are already in process or those that have not yet been registered at the National Registry, the Panama Tourism Authority has a portfolio of 104 projects which is equal to an investment of $3.63 billion that will generate 16,039 jobs and 22,227 rooms.
The document prepared by the Spanish consulting firm which won the contract, Tourism and Leisure, will arrive in Panama one month earlier than expected
The document will be analyzed by the Master Plan Follow-up Committee and presented to the World Tourism Organization, which collaborated in the design of the program.
One of the bases of the plan has been the elaboration of a map identifying 26 tourist destinations in the country, instead of the current 9. 21 programs have designed for these 26 destinations and, in practice, will be applied in 72 projects.
Law #8 promotes tourism activities in the country by offering tax relief on imports, real estate and capital investments, to name a few.
A report by the Panama Tourism Institute (IPAT) reveals that 12 investment projects totaling $92.5 million have been approved.
This will be the last year in which capital investment projects can benefit from Law 8, a measure designed to foster investment in the country's interior, Carl-Fredrik Nordström, Assistant Manager of IPAT, pointed out.
Panama received 771.376 visitors between January and June of this year, an increase of 12% over the same period of 2007.
The figures were provided by the Panamanian Institute of Tourism.
In June alone, the number of visitors to the country was up 14%. This increase, in addition to a positive performance on May, shifted the negative trend registered in April, when a drop in the number of cruise ships caused negative growth (-0.1%) in comparison to the same month of the previous year.
Panama has organized its territory to encourage competitiveness in tourism, technological services, transport, and trade, while keeping sustainable development in the forefront.
Panama's planning experiences provide interesting implications for the process of territorial organization in Central America.
One of the most interesting of these is the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Project on the Atlantic side of the country.
Six prominent publicity companies have responded to the second call for bids made by the Panamanian Tourist Institute.
The companies are Azul Publicidad, BB&M, Marquez Worldwide, McCann Ericsson, Mega Publicidad and Punto Aparte.
They are interested in getting in on contracts worth 4 million balboas over the next four years in a national tourism campaign.
The number of visitors to Panama keeps on increasing.
The statistics department of the Panama Tourism Institute reports that 554,126 visitors arrived in the first four months of this year, up from 507,920 in the same period of 2007.
Of this year's total, 370,860 arrived by air, 42,113 by land and 141,207 by sea.
Panama is promoting itself as a destination for "incentive tourism" that companies offer to their executives, employees and clients.
The Panamanian Tourism Institute (Ipat) believes that Panama and its coasts have much to offer in terms of incentive tourism, a growing sector of the international tourism industry.
Panama expects to receive 1.4 million tourists this year, up from 1.3 million in 2007, the Panamanian tourism Institute (IPAT) said.
IPAT said its estimate was based on year-on-year-growth recorded in January and February. Carl-Fredrik Nordström, an IPAT official, said the growth was due to promotion of Panama as a tourist destination in North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe.
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