Panamas search for tourism Holy Grail
A SPANISH consulting company will receive $127,000 to update Panama’s Tourism Master Plan 2007-2020 in recognition of the reality that international tourism has changed due to technology and social networks says the Tourism Authority, (ATP).
The stuttering body has hired Augusto Huéscar who has worked as a consultant for the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to update the plan drawn up 11 years ago that has advanced with “unequal performance indices” in each of the points, under the direction of a stream of different directors including criminally charged, Martinelli confident Saloman Shamah, who while in office had his US visa suspended and publicly admitted he had no knowledge of the tourism industry.
With guidelines proposed by the ATP, Huéscar will produce yet another report on “the problem” and analyze the 26 destinations identified in the current plan to identify 8 priority destinations to “make a diagnosis” for its potential development.
It seeks once again to reduce the imbalance between tourism in the city and the rest of the country.
Gustavo Him, the current administrator of the ATP, who will likely be replaced in the next government, commented that the idea is to give continuity to the original plan and determine what was not done and what can be done now.
Ernesto Orillac, president of the Panamanian Association of Tour Operators, commented that the most important aspect of the update is that the opinion of the private sector be taken into account.
Whether the opinions of visitors disillusioned by poor service and garbage littered highways will be included in the latest study is a moot point.
The $ 126, 192, cost of the latest analysis will be divided into three payments that will be made against delivery of updates of the plan.
Him said that different administrations did not give continuity to the master plan and the assigned budget was insufficient to execute the projects it embodied.
His successor will likely face the same problem, without the artificial fillip to tourism figures provided by the World Youth Day event in January.
