Panama’s international promotion strategy is focused on a market of 500 million visitors who are identified as “conscious travelers”, since they are focused on learning about the culture of the destinations they visit and seek to promote sustainable development with their trip.
Fernando Fondevila, general director of the International Promotion Fund (Promtur), commented to the newspaper La Prensa that for this year 15 million dollars will be allocated in new actions that the fund will execute. He indicates that other promotions, alliances or campaigns that are already running were added to the 2022 budget.
For this year, the entry of 1.8 million visitors is projected, a figure higher than the 709 thousand 768 tourists that were estimated to have entered last year.
Promtur’s strategy, which is based on the tourism brand that was launched in the second half of 2021 -‘Panama, lives for more’- will be focused on 9 countries, with the United States being the main destination, as it is the largest issuer of tourists for Panama.
Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina and Canada are the other destinations included in the promotion plan.
The restrictions that the Government kept in force as a curfew, as part of the strategy to combat Covid-19, slowed down the recovery of the country as a tourist destination, a situation that did not occur in other markets, such as the Dominican Republic and Mexico, which in the middle of the pandemic have already returned to the numbers of 2019.
One of the pillars within Promtur’s strategy is attracting international events. By 2022, there are 25 confirmed events that are projected to leave $24 million in the economy.
