Visitors To Panama Increase By 13 Percent (But Will The Trend Last?)
(costaricapages.com) For the first time ever, Panama has seen more than 1-million visitors in the first eight months of the year. Though these statistics are encouraging, will the trend continue even with the economic collapse being experienced around the world?
Between January 1st and September 1st of this year, more than 1.1 million people entered Panama at the various entry points, marking a 13 percent increase over the same period in 2007. The majority of the visitors came through Tocumen International Airport. The amount of visitors who entered Panama by ocean was down 16 percent from the same period last year.
Panama receives many visitors from North America, Europe, the UK and South America. Many of these nations that have provided Panama with the majority of these visitors are now reeling from the global economic crisis. Could this be the last time for a number of years that we see an increasing number of visitors to Panama?
A record number of people around the world are losing their jobs, their homes, their investments. The Panamanian Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism has been released and calls for an investment of $741.1 million dollars. An organized tourism plan is exactly what Panama needs, but is it too late? Will the statistics we read for the next few years show tourism in Panama drastically decreasing, or will Panama somehow manage to continue to be a destination for business and tourism?
This may be the perfect time for Panama to create new residential visas. Far less people will be able to invest $200,000 in real estate, or receive $1,000 a month from their pensions abroad. If Panama acts quickly and begins offering visas for those people that can prove they rent (or have bought) property in Panama, pay utilities and support the local economy in other ways, I will bet there will be a lot of US, Canadian and EU nationals lining up.
Since there’s a good chance tourism numbers in Panama will be dropping, Panama needs to get creative and find a way to attract other types of visitors to the country.
