Ensuring the resources of the Mixed Fund for Tourism Promotion and the formalization of the administration of the Amador Convention Center are actions that the business sector of Panama proposes to the new authorities to reactivate the activity of the sector.

Although in the last year the country reached 2.48 million tourists, spending $4,605 million, exceeding in 3.3% what was recorded in 2017, businessmen ask the new administration to make “all efforts that lead to a vigorous revival of tourism.”

From the CCIAP statement:

Because of the capacity of tourism to promote other productive activities in the country, there are several reasons for the newly installed government to include this sector within its priorities of immediate attention.

Tourism can generate hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs at different scales of development and geographical areas, and incorporate individual, family and collective entrepreneurs into its dynamics.

This adaptability has in the country a unique field of action by offering from jungle and desert areas to high altitude lands, through its extraordinary wealth of flora and fauna, as well as seas and island territories.

In fact, tourism is one of the country’s most important exporters, as it integrates many businesses into its management. However, the so-called ‘industry without chimneys’ is in a state of crisis, which leads it to require urgent attention to recover its potential as a strategic economic factor.

Read full statement (In Spanish).