Alan Lam reporting
Panama’s tourism authority (Autoridad de Turismo de Panamá or ATP) has initiated new efforts aiming at attracting major cruise lines to consider homeporting in Panama City.
Gustavo Him, who recently replaced Jesús Sierra as the Administrator of ATP, met with executives from both Royal Caribbean y Carnival Cruises aiming at finding a path to increase cruise homeport business in Panama City. “The expansion of Panama Canal and the introduction of new routes by airlines like Copa,” said Gustavo Him, during the meeting, “are clear demonstrations of Panama being a viable homeport for cruise lines.”
The economic case for being a homeport was clear, as the number of tourists arriving in Panama would increase dramatically. It was mentioned that, for example, a cruise ship with the capacity of 2,500 passengers chose to homeport in Panama City, it would generate 125,000 additional visitors per annum; most of these will stay between one and three days before or after the cruise.
The new initiative is aimed largely at the Latin American source market. It is stipulated that one of the principle attractions of Panama for Latin American visitors is shopping, which will benefit the economy of the city enormously. Moreover the city has an array of attractions for cruise tourism, such as the Canal, the Museum of Biodiversity, and the famous Casco Antiguo.
ATP is currently formulating specific strategies in attracting tourism in general to the country; making Panama City a cruise homeport is one of these.
