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Medical tourism is becoming a multi-billion dollar industry around the world.
Panama is just now realizing the potential of this market.
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President Juan Carlos Varela has officially signed a resolution authorizing Copa Airlines to begin two direct daily flights after January 15 from the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City to the Enrique Malek Airport in David.
Previously people living in David and the Boquete areas of Panama had to drive or take a bus at least 7 hours to the Tocumen Airport or fly into the Albrook Airport and take a taxi to the Tocumen Airport for international flights. The announcement of this new route means that people will be able to fly directly the David airport to Tocumen and connect to their flight to the U.S. or wherever else they may be heading.
Besides this being a benefit to the people living in David it should also help to boost tourism in this party of the country.
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Users who consume more than 301 KW of electricity will have to pay up in 2015.
It was announced that users who consume 301 KW – 700 KW will have a 9% increase in their electric bill and everyone who consumes 701 KW or more will have a 19% increase.
Electricity in Panama costs around .16 cents per a KW so someone who consumes 750 KW a month will now have to pay around $143 instead of $120 for electricity.
Users who consume less than 300 KW will continue to pay the normal subsidized prices.
The increase will take place in the first quarter of 2015 and authorities have claimed that costs could go back to normal in the second half of 2015 if energy consumption decreases throughout the country.
By Kris Hudson – Wall Street Journal
PANAMA CITY, Panama—This Central American country, known mostly for the bustling canal that bisects it, has found a downside to its surging economy: It has built too many offices and hotels.
Panama’s growth as Central America’s banking capital and its aggressive recruitment of multinational companies with tax breaks made it a magnet in recent years for foreign investors.
Wealthy people and companies in countries like Colombia and Venezuela have seen Panamanian real estate as a stable place to stash capital.
Driven by this demand, Panamanian developers have nearly tripled Panama City’s high-end office market since 2009. They expanded its stock of hotel rooms by roughly 61% in 2012 and 2013 together, according to Lodging Econometrics.
As a result, Panama City’s office vacancy rate has risen to 33.6%, the highest in Latin America, and could go as high as 45% by 2016, according to brokerage JLL. Lease rates for all but the best towers have declined by as much as 30% since 2012, the firm says.
Meanwhile, the country’s average hotel occupancy has fallen to 49.9% in the first 10 months of this year from 72.5% in the same period of 2008, according to Smith Travel Research. In turn, nightly rates have declined by 28% in that span to an average of $108.80.
Property owners and investors in Panama now anticipate several years of office floors sitting vacant and hotel rooms going unused. Many predict Panama’s burgeoning economy will take up the slack, but not for at least another two years, if not longer. Others are watching for owners to start selling hotels on the cheap and for desperate landlords to cut office lease rates further, meaning still cheaper rates for travelers and office tenants alike.
“Too many people started building the same thing without talking to each other,” said Herman Bern Sr., whose family firm, Empresas Bern, has developed 130 commercial and residential projects in Panama since he founded the company in 1978. “Just greed and optimism. It was like, ‘If you are doing it, it must be something good. So I’m going to do it, too.’ ”
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