Sunday 07
September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Tourism And Hotels
Boom in Panama
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|
Tourism And Hotels Boom
in Panama
By Doreen Hemlock |
South Florida
Sun-Sentinel
South Florida faces a
rising rival in tourism:
Panama.
Investors are pouring
hundreds of millions of
dollars into hotels into
the small Central
American country, which
posted the fastest
growth in international
arrivals in the
hemisphere last year: up
30 percent to 1.1
million.
Some now dub the
tropical nation, long
known for its canal and
banks, the "new Miami"
and hottest spot for new
hotels outside the
Middle East's Dubai.
Panama competes with
South Florida largely
for visitors from nearby
South America and the
Caribbean, including
many interested in
waterfront condo-hotel
units. It also lures
some U.S. travelers and
retirees who like its
use of the dollar and
proximity, less than
three hours' flight from
Fort Lauderdale.
Florida companies are
cashing in. The Seminole
Tribe's Hard Rock
International plans its
first Latin American
hotel in Panama.
Miami-based Nikki Beach
Hotels & Resorts plans
an oceanfront resort and
a city tower. Plus,
Florida designers,
architects and other
service firms are
working on projects in
the tropical nation of
3.2 million residents.
Spurring growth are
several factors: recent
Panama incentives to
encourage hotel
investment; the $5
billion expansion of the
Panama Canal; costs and
taxes lower than South
Florida; and increasing
air and sea links for
travelers.
Panama also is gaining
from tough U.S. security
rules after Sept. 11,
2001, which make it more
cumbersome for
foreigners to obtain
U.S. visas and cross
U.S. gateways.
"A lot of our
international customers
refuse to come to the
United States now
because of the hassles.
It's so much easier to
get into other
countries," said Gary
Sims, president of Nikki
Beach Hotels, which has
no hotels planned to
date in the U.S.
Just three years ago,
few would have predicted
that Panama would come
on so strong in tourism.
But a 2006 vote for a
massive canal expansion
and government
incentives helped fuel a
real estate boom,
including luxury towers
in the capital with
condo-hotels.
Panama became so vibrant
that hotels could not
keep pace with demand,
especially from business
travelers.
City hotels that
averaged $120 a night
three years ago now run
$170 a night or more.
And occupancy at
top-tier hotels jumped
from less than 70
percent to roughly 85
percent, with rooms
often full weekdays,
said Rogerio Basso, a
hospitality analyst at
Ernst & Young in Miami.
At least 8,000 new hotel
rooms are planned, most
in shopping
center-studded Panama
City and on Playa Blanca
beach on the Pacific
coast. That's about 50
percent more rooms than
Panama's current tally —
or an increase equal to
about one-fourth of all
the hotel rooms now in
Broward County.
Still, Panama remains
relatively small in
tourism. Even with
double-digit growth
again this year, it
attracted fewer than
800,000 air and sea
arrivals in the first
half. That compares with
more than 7
millionguests who stayed
overnight in Broward
County in the same
period.
Panama also faces
challenges to sustain
its rapid growth. Roads
and infrastructure lag,
with traffic already a
problem in the capital.
New luxury hotels must
focus on employee
training. And analysts
question whether the
country can attract
enough upscale guests to
fill the many luxury
hotels proposed,
including the first
Buddha-Bar Hotel & Spa
in the Americas, linked
with the Paris
nightclub.
But hoteliers such as
John Issa of Jamaica's
all-inclusive chain
SuperClubs, now opening
his first Central
American resort on Playa
Blanca, see opportunity
first.
"Panama is becoming a
sort of crossroads"
luring North, Central
and South Americans and
increasingly, Asians
doing business in the
hemisphere, Issa said.
That's much like South
Florida, which bills
itself the gateway to
the Americas. |
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