The Country of the Absurd

Tourism, one of the pillars of our economy, has suffered losses estimated at more than $3 billion, as a result of the collateral damage produced by the Covid-19 pandemic. But, in addition, the Government has contributed enormously to delaying its recovery. In many cases, government policy in this sector has been erratic, improvised, and discretionary. Tourism in Panama has been one of the worst treated by the authorities. There are too many cases in which foreigners who came to visit the country repeatedly complain of mistreatment, abuse, the price of tests at the airport – and even to go to Taboga -, the quality of the hotels where they are forced to remain, of the little seriousness of the laboratories hired by the Government to do the tests, of the impoliteness, of the lack of information; confusing regulations and authoritarianism in the application of the rules. In short, many are affected and this will surely have consequences for tourism, hit by the strictness of local quarantines, not counting international ones. What good are incentives to build works for tourism if there will be no tourists? This is the country of the absurd. – LA PRENSA, Aug.23.