New Panama convention center operational 2019

After over five years of delays including political shenanigans, false starts, and malfeasance the new convention center in Amador should be operational in 2019, and Panama city has enough hotel accommodation to host conferences of 10,000 delegates.

Executives from the Federation of Conferences and Related Organizations of Latin America (Cocal)  meeting in Panama on  Sunday, said that the vast majority of international events does not exceed 1,000 participants, adding that the hotel infrastructure in the capital city is enough to accommodate almost all of these business meetings.

Pablo Weil, president of Cocal, said that Panama has not captured more international events because the private sector has not come together to achieve this goal.

“As it happens in many countries of the region, in Panama the private sector does not go with a single voice before the authorities to make the country host an international event,” he said.

Elizabeth Tovar, director of Cocal, said that we should not wait for the new Amador convention center to be finished to promote the country as a destination for international events.

The center is over 85%, advanced and the contractor must deliver the work in December.

The   Tourism Authority plans that the 60,000 square meters, structure which will have the capacity to receive over  25,000 people, will be operational in the second quarter of 2019.

The work had to be ready by the end of 2014, but it was paralyzed for two years after the original contractor left the project.

Ana María Viscasillas, vice president of Cocal, pointed out that the American continent congress and convention tourism has an economic impact that exceeds 30 billion a year.

The challenge of the countries that host congresses and conventions is to offer personalized experiences to the attendees; demonstrate the identity of the destination to get the person to extend their stay or decide to return with a vacation plan.

This would be a key piece to fill the hotel rooms that have only 45% occupancy.