Panama Government Plans To Halt Short Term Apartment Rentals To Tourists
(Panama-Guide) By LUIS ALBERTO SIERRA for La Estrella - The interim report submitted by the Comptroller General of the Republic on Aug. 19 showed a decline of 9.3% in the daily average of occupied hotel rooms in the country, in contrast to an increase of 8.7% in the arrival of new tourists. The administrator of the Panama Tourism Authority (PTA), Solomon Shamah, told La Estrella that "clandestine hotels" are primarily responsible for this contrasting result, and that it is affecting the sector it represents. Given that the current financial crisis is making it more difficult for some real estate investors who purchased apartments to resell them, there were homeowners who chose to furnish them and use them as guest houses, creating competition for the hotels with these so-called "public accomodations.
