BRIEFS. tourism

More than 100 hotel applications approved

The Tourism Authority of Panama approved 102 preliminary plans for hotels in 2008.

Combined, these projects would entail an investment of $3.5 billion and would generate some 16,231 jobs while more than doubling the country's number of rooms.

It is unknown, however, how many of these projects will actually come to fruition. The authority saw a large flurry of projects submitted just before a deadline expired for a lucrative government tax program.

According to Carl-Fredrik Nordström, deputy administrator of the Tourism Authority, the agency reviewed all of the projects submitted before the Aug. 31 deadline, and approved 102 of them. It rejected five of the proposals.

The agency had until Dec. 31 to make a decision on each of the proposals.

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