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| Touristic expense grew 5% in 2009 |
 The expenses of tourists in the Panamanian economy , from January to December 2009 was of 2,328 million of balboas, with a growth of 5%, reveals a press release from the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) .Salomón Shamah, ATP´s general administrator, points out that this expense indicator shows that Panama as a destination receives quality tourists.According to the Statistics Department of ATP, Panamanian tourism had a negative variation of 0.8% during the mentioned period. In absolute terms there were 12,167 less visitors than in 2008. If we compare the numbers of 2008 with those of 2009, once more Panamanian tourism surpassed the barrier of a million and a half of arrivals, by reaching the amount of 1,562,884. During 2009 the Panamanian hotels in Panama city with more than 100 rooms registered an occupancy rate of 64%. “If we compare the decrease of 0.8% with the numbers of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), which show a less than 4,3% and the reduction of 5,1% corresponding to tourism in America, we can forecast that year 2010 in Panama comes with positive numbers,” Shamah stressed.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 February 2010 05:49 ) |