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| Hoteliers get ready for new challenges |
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The Panamanian hotelier sector is getting ready to face the increase in the number of rooms at national level and to collaborate in the tourist promotion of the country , reported the new president of Panamanian Hotel´s Association (Apatel, in Spanish), Sara Pardo. Pardo indicated that they foresee an expansion in the next two years of 7,000 rooms in the local market .The executive said the new hotel projects are located both in the capital city and in the interior of the country. An essential aspect is to have the adequate staff to attend that increase in the number of rooms, she pointed out. Currently, Apatel has an strategic Alliance with the National Institute of Professional and Human Development Training (Inadeh) and the projection is to launch new training programs in the hotel industry and to analyze the development of programs to encourage university students to choose related careers Besides, Pardo indicated that they must also prepare to collaborate in the touristic promotion and in this way attract more visitors to the country. According to the most recent data from the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP),the number of tourists who arrived to the country between January and November 2009 was 1.382.617, which represents a decrease of 21%, that is to say 21.544 less visitors than in 2008. However, the tourist expenses in 2009 reached US$1.285 million, about US$7 million more than in 2008, which represented an increase of 0.5%. Occupancy According to information from ATP, the percentage of hotel occupancy in 2008 , between January and November, in 19 hotels at Panama City (which correspond to group-1, as it has been defined by the entity) reached 78.3%; whereas , during the same period in 2009, it was of 63.6%, representing a decrease of 18.7%. The hotel occupancy in the city of group 2, which includes 30 hotels, was of 46.5% in 2008 and of 45.2% in 2009, showing a drop of 2.6%. Pardo is optimistic for this year and pointed out that “everything seems to indicate that we´re going to go up in 2010, maybe not in the levels of 2008. All the positive things happening in the country will contribute to that growth.”
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 25 January 2010 20:32 ) |
