Panama's Pacific Coast Heats up the Hotel Circuit
By Juan Carlos Martinez
The province of Cocle has quickly become a mecca for beach resorts and hotel chains. Currently on the coast and operational are Decameron, Bristol Buenaventura, Breezes and Playa Blanca. Soon to open up is Nikki Beach. Another resort chain may soon be joining them: Riu hotel chain is considering building a hotel in this area and has already bought the land in the region of Anton in Cocle.
Riu hotel chain is already building another hotel in Panama City on Calle 50 which is expected to be ready by September of this year. Their Panama City hotel is requiring an investment of approximately $100 million.
The hotel chain has declined to talk about a new hotel preferring to concentrate on the one that they are currently building which should be finished later this year.
The hotel sector in Panama is growing at a rapid pace this year and is expected to contribute $700 million to the economy as there are 20 projects being built of which 15 are located in Panama City. These projects will bring the number of rooms available in the Republic of Panama to 23 thousand making it more competitive in the tourism market.
This year a new hotel project was approved in the Casco Viejo, “Old Quarter”, which will use the structure and walls of the old Union Club. This project is being built by the Stalling Group. The hotel chain La Quinta is also adding to the hotel offer with 500 rooms in seven years as they will be building 13 hotels throughout the country, including one in Penonome in the province of Cocle. Hyatt and Hilton are already building in Panama as well. They have already signed an agreement to build a hotel under the Waldorf Astoria Collection which will be called The Panamera. The hotel is currently being built and is located in Calle Uruguay in Bella Vista and is expected to be ready in the second semester of 2011. This will be the first Waldorf Astoria Collection in Latin America and the fifth Hilton Worldwide development in Panama.
The hotel sector expects to incorporate 10,000 new hotel rooms to the current offer within the next two years and create 15,000 new jobs in the hospitality industry. As of May 16 of this year there were 517 lodging center operational offering 27 thousand 936 beds, in 18 thousand 296 rooms.
The hospitality business seems to be booming.
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