News

Costa Rica has traditionally been considered the leader in Central America tourism, but that’s about to change.

 In 2015, Panama attracted more than 2.5 million tourists, a healthy 10.7 percent increase from a year earlier, according to the Tourism Authority of Panama. Costa Rica posted 2.6 million tourists to barely edge Panama, but clearly a shift is taking place.

Tourists are already spending considerably more money in Panama than Costa Rica, the data shows. Travelers injected more than $4.1 billion into Panama in 2015 compared to $2.6 billion spent in Costa Rica, according to published reports.

In large part, Panama’s growth can be attributed to a steady increase in the number of high-end luxury travelers. Luxury travel boutique Virtuoso recently reported Panama notched the largest increase in luxury bookings for travel in the first quarter of 2016, a 107 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

“Panama may have languished under the shadow of its more popular tourism neighbors Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but in the last few years the country has gained the attention of the luxury travel industry precisely for its under-the-radar aspect and untouched surroundings,” AFP reports.

Panama benefits from a more diverse audience of travelers than Costa Rica. In Panama, 46.1 percent of the tourists in 2015 came from South America, led by Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. The U.S., Mexico and Canada accounted 24.1 percent of visitors, followed by Europe at 13.6 percent. In contrast, more than half of the tourists to Costa Rica are from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The one negative in Panama’s tourism sector in 2015 was a sharp decline in hotel occupancy, which fell to 56.1 percent, the lowest level since 2006. But that’s a bit of misnomer, reflecting the over-supply of hotel rooms more than market interest. For travelers, the low occupancy rates translated to great deals on hotel rooms.

Clearly the world is discovering Panama’s vast array of attributes. Last year, Travel + Leisure magazine named Bocas del Toro the top destination of 2016, praising the islands for some of the “purest natural beauty in Latin America.” Panama is no longer an undiscovered paradise–the secret is out.

Duncan McGowan is president of Punta Pacifica Realty, a Panama real estate agency focused on Punta Pacifica, the exclusive neighborhood of 18 towers perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.