Hotel Bubble in Panama?

The opening of more than 20 hotels has been announced for 2012, adding 6,000 rooms to the inventory offered by Panama, and representing an annual increase of 300% in the hotel supply, while the increase in the number of visitors to the country during 2011 grew by - 13%, which although significant, is far below what would be needed to keep up the hotel occupancy rate, which currently stands at 66%.

According to an article in Elfinancierocr.com the administrator of the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP), Solomon Shamah, fears that the occupancy rate will go down to 30%.

"Even with the ATP and the private sector doing their best, we can not grow tourism by 300%. That is impossible and there are no plans to bring in that number of people", said the minister. "If they want to build hotels, the should do so in the interior, I, while I'm here, will not provide more incentive in the city," said the minister. "The actions to be implemented to prevent a hotel bubble are radical: approve a new tourism law to eliminate incentives in the capital and ‘clandestine’ lodges, and accelerate the construction of the new convention center."

Source: elfinancierocr.com

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