Tourism EXPO aimed at jumpstarting post-Covid economy.
- By : James Bryson
- Category : Panama Tourism
The eleventh version of the International Tourism Expo, organized by the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (Cciap), was inaugurated this Friday, March 25, with the firm objective of promoting Panama as a tourist destination par excellence and the industry as an engine for economic recovery.
Within the framework of the opening ceremony, the president of the fair’s organizing committee, Monique de Saint Malo Eleta, highlighted that long before the events of recent years (covid-19 pandemic), the private sector had on its radar the need to aggressively promote the tourism sector as an industry, with a multiplier effect towards other sectors of the national economy.
“For twelve years the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Panama has been holding International Tourism Expo, a fair that seeks to position Panama as a destination par excellence among its target markets,” he said.
Therefore, “today in a new scenario we insist that the economic reactivation involves betting on tourism and this time it is organized and aligned in order to generate demands for our destination,” said de Saint Malo.
He specified that during the eleventh version of the International Tourism Expo and together with Expocomer and Expo Logistica Panama, 150 specialized international buyers will be present who visit “a Panama that lives for more.”
“These exhibitions attract businessmen and women from all over the world, who join specialized buyers to have first-hand our offer in terms of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions, as well as experience in the post tours that offer, the seas, mountains, all our culture and all the benefits that Panama has,” said Saint Malo.
The International Tourism Expo 2022 is made up of 120 exhibition modules where national and international exhibitors will be able to make business contacts and start a relationship that, Saint Malo predicted “fruitful, with the ultimate goal of the arrival of more tourists to our country”.
The expo also has a new component for this fair in particular: the exchange of knowledge, information and innovation.
For his part, for the administrator of the Tourism Authority Iván Eskildsen, “this meeting gives our country an enormous opportunity to continue moving forward in this very important tourism industry…”.
He stressed that with this country event Panama is consolidated as a “great meeting point par excellence” as it has historically been.
In his speech, Eskildsen mentioned that Panama is an agricultural hub, an air hub, a hub of the Americas that allows the country to position itself as the most connected destination or city in Latin America.
“All this legacy allows us to come to Expo Turismo today, a huge opportunity to take advantage of this vote in Panama as a meeting point and capitalize on it with business meetings by relaunching this tourism that we all long to reactivate in this post-pandemic world,” said Eskildsen. .
However, he trusts that all the suffering brought by the pandemic also “allows us to renew ourselves and transform tourism as we have been doing it.”
He stressed that strengthening the industry without chimneys is part of the commitment of the current government administration as “the economic engine of the future for our country”; and for the first time in history, a Sustainable Tourism Master Plan was approved. “The intention is to position Panama as a world-class sustainable tourist destination, based on the richness of our culture and our nature,” said Eskildsen.
For his part, Saint Malo, emphasized that today the International Tourism Expo is ready to start a business session where it is expected that everyone will get the best impression of the Panamanian offer and many more will soon be received as a result of this exchange. . “Panama is a country that is safely open to the world. We are ready to welcome everyone. Welcome to Panama and the Panama Convention Center,” said the organizing president.
No Comments