The coasts of Colon could see an injection of $1 billion dollars in the next five years as plans to build four new resorts that would host more than 200,000 people annually take shape. The investors are busnessmen from Canada, Holland and Spain, and they hope to develop several large projects said the General Submanager of Panama's Tourism Institute Carl Fredrik Nordstrom. Right now about 15,000 hotel rooms exist in all of Panama, and plans call to expand that total to 25,000 rooms in the next five years, said IPAT. Of that total 1,297 rooms are in Colon province, where 25 tourist hotels operate according to Carlos Cavaría, the Mayor of Portobelo. Right now there are several projects in the works to increase the number of hotel rooms available along the coast of Colon province, an increase to the existing facilities on Isla Grande and Bananas Village, which implies an investment of $15 million. Nordstrom said there is great interest in Europe to develop the Panamanian Caribbean coast where there is currently no connection with the rest of the country, which would be good for the development of Panama. (more)
Editor's Comment: A billion here, a billion there, after awhile it starts to add up to some real money. So far I'm tracking $5.25 billion for the canal expansion, $8 billion for the Oxy refinery, about another $1 billion for the mega-port project and the cleanup of the Bay of Panama, all of the money being spent on construction and housing projects, golf courses, beach resorts, highways, power projects, as well as natural resources such as gold, copper, and oil. Holy crap. Wanna buy a condo? In this economy you could practically open a pay-per-salt-lick and make money.
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Although he did not reveal the names of the projects, nor numbers of investment because plans have to be reviewed by the Board of Directors of the IPAT, but he did estimate the total investments planned so far will surpass $1 billion dollars.
Jorge Loaiza, the President of the Panamanian Hotel Association (Apatel) holds a similar view, and said that the construction of a highway towards Colon from the Tocumen International Airport would cut the drive to 45 minutes.
IPAT said the coasts of Colon are classified as a tourist zone from Maria Chiquita to the town of Santa Isabel.
Due to that classification, all tourism projects, hotels, marinas, restaurants and other activities related to tourism benfit from incentives under Law 8 which is valid until 2015.
The investment to build recreational areas is important, as well as the training and education to prepare the local population to work in these resorts.
Also, the development of the area as a tourist destination would allow for a greater number of tourists to use the area as well as an increase in consumption in the zone.
The alternative of the IPAT to preserve the natural reserve, would be to develop habitacionales projects from Maria Chiquita to the entrance of Portobelo.
