tourism

Panama to add 7,000 hotel rooms

Carlos Lemos/LA PRENSA

48 morehotels will be built by 2010. 992519

The Instituto Panameño de Turismo (Ipat) approved 48 hotel projects throughout the country last year to meet the growing demand.

These projects are expected to cost a combined $664 million, and will bring the number of rooms available in the country to more than 24,000 by 2010.

The largest of these projects is the Crystal Tower on Avenida Balboa in Panama City. This $170 million project is being developed by the Spanish company Gesmar, and will be a mix of residences and hotel rooms.

The second-largest project is Hotel Balboa Park, which will cost an estimated $90 million. It will have 112 rooms.

It is estimated that the new hotels will generate about 2,800 jobs once the facilities are up and running. More than half of the hotels will be built in Panama City.

The country currently has about 17,000 hotel rooms, which is not enough to meet the growing demand. The proposed projects are expected to add about 7,000 rooms to the total. That figure could climb as more projects are approved.

According to Ipat, Panama’s hotels saw their occupancy rates climb by 20 percent last year.

Large hotels had a banner year, Ipat officials said, with occupancy rates topping 80 percent for the year.

Hotels with less than 100 rooms reported an occupancy rate of just over 40 percent.