Black Weekend in September

Panama is getting ready to promote the country for its Black Weekend’ to be held from September 14th to 16th.

It will be a weekend of sales in stores in 12 shopping centers around the country.  Merchants, tour operators, hoteliers, airlines and the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP)  working together to revive local economic activity with the arrival of foreign tourists.

Last year, the sales produced an economic impact of $90 million and attracted more than 29,000 foreign tourists from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to figures from the ATP.

"In 2017 Panama was placed as a regional  destination, but this year we are also  attracting tourists from  the Caribbean islands, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and more’’, "says Nadkyi Duque, president of the Panamanian Association of Shopping Centers, (Apacecom).

This year the Mastercard is one of the sponsors and promoters of the event. This week the ATP will officially present it campaign. Duque specifies that the discounts will vary according to the stores, but can reach up to 70% reduction in products and services. This year there are two additional shopping centers,  Soho Mall and Town Center joining in Albrook, El Dorado, Los Pueblos, Altaplaza, Paseo Central, Atrio Mall, Los Andes, MegaMall, Wesland Mall and Santiago Mall, a total of 12 malls.

He announced that in addition to the weekend of offers in September, another Black Weekend is also being prepared within the framework of the World Youth Day taking advantage of the arrival of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world, for the visit of Pope Francis to Panamanian land. "We are constantly looking for strategic alliances to promote Panama as a shopping destination and this will be an excellent opportunity to promote local tourism."

In September different airlines such as Copa Airlines, AirPanamá and Wingo, in addition to Avianca, will mobilize a large number of tourists who will come to take advantage of discounts at local businesses. "We have achieved agreements with some airlines to offer attractive rates for travelers that weekend."

He explained that in addition to the discounts in stores, there will be offers of special travel packages, hotel services, even restaurants, car rental, events and other establishments. Black Weekend also has a web page where all the information of the discount season will be placed http://compras.visitpanama.com/.