tourism

4 days, 56 hotel proposals

Developers scrambled to submit hotel proposals to Ipat before a tax incentive program expired.

The Instituto Panameño de Turismo (Ipat) received proposals for 56 hotel projects with a combined value of $1.7 billion dollars between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30.

According to an Ipat report, these hotels will generate 8,207 jobs and create 5,938 rooms.

Altogether, Ipat has 104 pending hotel projects that have a total value of $3.6 billion. These projects will generate an estimated 16,000 jobs and result in 22,227 rooms.

Aug. 30 was the last day for developers to receive tax breaks for hotel projects within Panama City, which explained why so many were filed in the four-day period last month.

The agency is so swamped with proposals that it has hired outside consultants to review them to see if they meet the criteria to qualify for the tax incentives. According to Ipat Deputy Director Carl-Fredrik Nordström, the projects must be reviewed by Dec. 15.

Ipat officials said that the tax program was a success in expanding the number of hotel rooms in Panama City, but less so in expanding that number in the interior. Therefore, the tax incentives will be continued for projects outside the city.

In addition to the 104 existing proposals, Nordström said that two other projects, totaling 1,100 rooms, will be submitted in the near future, even though the developers know that they won't qualify for the tax breaks.