A list of the new hotels, their opening dates and number of rooms is included in this article.
Hotels are looking for 12 000 employees
International standards provide that each room requires a minimum of 1.2 employee.
Alex e. hernández
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The Panamanian hotel industry is experiencing a unprecedented growth. About 10 000 new rooms built over the next three years.
Currently rise 10 hotels, including the Doubletree and the Hilton chain Riu Spain. Both will be inaugurated before the end of the year. Furthermore, in the next 12 months will begin to build another six projects.
The estimated investment by the Panamanian Association of Hotels (Apatel) in the next 36 months exceeds $ 2 billion, increasing the number of rooms to about 30 000 across the country.
Beyond the economic impact to the arrival of large chains such as Hilton, Ramada and Hyatt, this awakening hotel brings a challenge faced by other sectors of the economy, the availability of experienced workers and in the case of hotels, which manage a second language like English.
The numbers are compelling. Over the next three years the country must generate about 12 000 skilled workers to meet demand for new hotels.
This shortage has begun to stir the waters of the sector. On one side are the hotels in operation and seek to retain staff at the other extreme are those who seek to have qualified labor to begin operations.
According to Sarah Brown, president of Apatel, staff turnover in the hotel sector has increased in recent months, according to the projections of the trade, this trend will increase as new hotels open their doors, "although we do not with a record of movement of workers, "said Pardo.
He also indicated that there have been cases of employees with more than 20 years of working in a hotel that is changed to another for better pay offer.
The manager of a hotel, who asked that his name, said that over the past five months about 15 workers quit to join the new hotels opening this year. Most had more than five years of experience.
For Jorge Loaiza, President of Royal adviser declined, the so-called "personal cannibalism" has always happened and will be happening in the hospitality industry, while recognizing that it is not optimum.
In his view, there will always be companies that seek to gain the services of people with experience, but adds that the real challenge is to propagate the idea that within tourism, especially in hotels, you can get a paying job.
The skilled labor shortage is recorded at all levels, but high control or management positions are among the priorities of the hotels.
Managers, financial officers, directors and sales staff and coordinators of strategy are the most coveted jobs in the sector.
These people must have previous experience, because "it is not running a hotel than a traditional business, terms and methods are different," said the president of Apatel.
Given the shortage of Panama prepared, hotels described as positive the program developed by the National Immigration Service that allowed hundreds of immigrants legalize their immigration status.
"We understand that most of these people do not have a steady job, so now they are legalized they become another option for finding labor," noted Brown.
Representatives of Hilton Worldwide, to manage three of the five hotels that operate under this brand in the country, indicated that they have not yet begun its recruitment program, but rely on the country's ability to generate human resources required in the sector hotel.
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If the capital is a challenge to find skilled labor in other provinces is almost an impossible mission.
Fernando Duque, president of Buenaventura, a company that manages the hotel with the same name in the province of Cocle, said they had to work from scratch with the inhabitants of the area because the hotel experience was nil, even notes that many had never visited a hotel or restaurant.
Duke recognizes the effort made by institutions like the National Institute of Vocational Training for Human Development (Inadeh).
However, he believes we still have to improve skills and bring them to all corners of the country.
Currently, the Inadeh develops more than 30 courses related to tourism and its director, Temístocles Rosas, said that in collaboration with Apatel have trained over the past three years about 14 thousand people.
According to estimates by the institution, one of every two graduates of Inadeh is hired after performing their professional practice.
Inadeh is receiving advice of the French Society for the Export of Educational Resources and the U.S. firm Freeman Group to improve food programs, and training for maids, waiters, housekeepers, among others.
Quality of Service
The lack of skilled labor is not the only challenge facing the hotel industry. Raising levels of care also of concern to the union.
For years Panama has been below average on the quality of care offered to visitors compared with other countries in the region.
In 2008, a survey by Freeman Group indicated that the levels of care in Panama were 70%, 100% being the optimal service-while in other countries reached 80%.
Two years later, the same measurement on 54 hotels in Panama increased service levels to 84%, reaching to most Central American nations. To make this measurement is sent a person posing as guests, who use certain criteria gives a rating to the care provided from arrival to leaving the hotel.
As more hotels are built and to increase the supply, quality of service will mark the line that divides the hotels with high occupancy, those with cold rooms and empty.
Accommodation and education
755 000 - Visitors who entered Panama from January to May.
17.975 - Number of rooms available until December 2009.
16 - Number of schools that implemented a pilot scheme which included matters relating to tourism.
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