The tourist campaign that will hopefully inspire private enterprise and the Government to promote tourism in the Province will be called, “Chiriqui Has Everything". In addition to promoting domestic tourism, the campaign will be used to attract foreign, and mainly American, visitors.

Ernesto Orillac, Adviser for the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP), has indicated that in-depth negotiations with American operators to achieve Charter flights into Enrique Malek, David Airport are progressing. The American cities in question include Boston and Chicago, and flights would arrive at David Airport every seven days.

To promote tourism in Chiriqui, work is being done on the formation of a conglomerate, with hotels and other tourism enterprises in the province participating.

ORILLAC explained that negotiations with U.S. tourism wholesalers are moving forward at a good pace and they expect that flights will start during the 2012 season. In addition to the negotiation of direct flights into David Airport, talks are also being held with Canadian carriers such as CanJet, Air Transat, and Air Canada to encourage arrivals when the airport begins operations at Rio Hato.

Recently, executives at the Canadian firm Sunwing sent a letter to the Government stating that they will begin operations at Rio Hato as soon as the terminal has opened. In the first four months of the year, the arrival of American and Canadian tourists increased by 12%  to include more than 115,000 visitors from the two countries.

Fuente: La Prensa 

Autor:  Alex E. Hernández