I had a surprise this week when we received a call from the offices of the Panama Tourism Authority saying, Salomon Shamah, the head of the ATP would be visiting our resort and wanted to meet with me. It had been September since I last met with him at the tourism dinner in Panama City just after he took office, and I wanted to get an update from him on his efforts to promote Panama. Over lunch with his entourage he told me the following:
He has been working with Copa and several other international airlines with direct flights into Panama to book flights through to David. Both Air Panama and Aeroperlas would be making at least one flight each evening from Tocumen to David to coincide with their international flights. The airport in David has had new runway lights and other equipment to allow for flights coming after dark from Tocumen. This eliminates an airport change and hotel stay in the city and simplifies ticketing for passengers. For those of us in the hospitality and tourism in Chiriqui, this is big news. It is well known that an additional flight from another airport into a country dramatically hinders tourism. It is scheduled to begin in February.
He does not see direct international flights into David for the foreseeable future. Not enough traffic or tourism infrastructure to support it.
I asked him if some of their advertising budget would be dedicated to promote our region. He said they are developing an advertising campaign focused on the Boquete in particular because it has the greatest concentration of hotels and other tourism infrastructure in the country outside Panama City and the beaches near it. They have developed a new website that will feature Boquete and Chiriqui as well. This is is much more than was done by previous administrations where we barely were mentioned on their website.
He suggested that we participate with the ATP in some of the many tourism fairs that they have committed to around the world this year. They have budgeted over $300,000 for these fairs. Tourism operators would only pay a $250 dollar fee and their expenses to participate. What I found most interesting about this was that he would be working each show and would be directing both his people and the participants working in the booth. He would expect them to arrive at a certain hour each day to work the booth for a set time with few breaks. Late comers would not be invited back. He said he would be reporting to each owner/operator on the ability and behavior of their people sent to work the show. He said his wife would also be there (at his travel expense) to help meet and greet attendees. To hear that the head of tourism would be working in such a way gives me great hope for Panama's tourism future. We will certainly participate in some of the international shows.
He also confirmed that the government was going forward with a four-lane road from David to Boquete this year as well as finishing the four-lane inter-American highway through to Cocle. The last administration had already done much of the work in determining costs etc. and this administration would see it through as the funding has been allocated.
This confirms my first impressions of the new head man in tourism. That he would be spending his time and efforts promoting real tourism in Panama rather than just focusing on the city , which is a business destination, as past administrators had done. He will not neglect Bocas del Toro or the Azuero's areas either although he did not elaborate on the specifics. He said he needs to focus his efforts where the greatest tourism infrastructure is already in place. Bravo, someone finally gets it!
Recent Comments