Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
It has taken considerable time and effort to put this report together and its implications are undeniably profound. Our purpose is in no way designed to hurt the country. We want to shine light of truth on what is believed by most people, in and outside of Panama, to be the country's largest industry. We hope that this information will help the country's political and business leaders to more carefully consider the tourism master plan that is currently under development by the Ministry of tourism. For any plan to be successful you must start with correct assumptions. Sam Taliaferro
December 2008
Prima Panama special report
By Paul McBride, CEO
Prima Panama, S.A.
SUMMARY
The fact that the number of "visitors" coming to Panama has increased dramatically over the past 10 years is undeniable. Yet it's important to make a distinction between "visitors" and "tourists". 41% of the increase in visitors over this period can be attributed to the increase in cruise ship passengers. Less than 15% of the current visitors to Panama arriving by air or land spend any time at all outside of Panama City. Any tour operator or travel agent will tell you that most real tourists only spend a short time in the city. Panama's real attractions (and the attractions promoted by IPAT) are all the wonderful sights located throughout the country at the beaches, on the islands and in the mountains. However, the numbers show that only a small fraction of the visitors coming to Panama travel outside of the city.
THE GROWTH OF TOURISM IN PANAMA
The foundation for any sound business decision is the ability to collect and analyze accurate data. Without reliable numbers, any decision that's made is a gamble, a simple crap shoot.
On paper, tourism is the fastest growing industry in Panama. According to statistics provided by the Panama Tourism Bureau, IPAT (STATISTICS REPORT 1997-2006), in 2006 the tourism industry contributed $1.45 billion dollars to the nation's economy. This amount represents 9.5% of Panama's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), making it the largest single industry in the country. By comparison, in 2006 the Panama Canal generated $1.08 billion dollars in income while the total economic impact of the Colon Free Zone was a paltry $696.2 million dollars.
IPAT's statistical analysis also showed that the number of international visitors arriving in Panama was equally impressive. In 2006, a total of 1,215,083 people came to visit Panama. This is an incredible accomplishment given that in the year 2000 visitor arrivals were just was about half that number (600,169).
What's driving these remarkable achievements? According to IPAT, the answer can be found in their report: "We can say that incoming tourism to Panama has maintained a sustained growth due to efforts made to strengthen strategies to promote Panama internationally in US, Latin-American, European and Canadian markets, as well as efforts to consolidate the cruise ship industry." In other words, the growth in the tourism industry is a direct result of IPAT's marketing strategy.
But, what exactly is that strategy. Well, by judging past marketing efforts including the recent "The Path Less Traveled" campaign, IPAT has been positioning Panama as a wonderland of sun, tropical beaches, remote islands, unspoiled rainforests and cosmopolitan city life. With such a successful marketing campaign and with well over 1 million visitors traveling to Panama, the beaches, islands, mountains and rainforests must be teeming with tourists with hotels bursting at the seams, tour operators running at full capacity and domestic flights packed with vacationers. All these areas must be singing songs of praise for the fabulous job done by the nation's tourism authority.
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