The Special Report on this occasion has so much information that we have captured it in an interview format with the newly elected President of the National Chamber of Tourism (CAMTUR) for the period 2022-2024 Ovidio Diaz. In a pleasant talk, Ovidio, with many years of experience in tourism, talks exclusively with The Visitor about what he plans to do once his mandate begins.
What is the first thing you will do as President of CAMTUR?
“The first thing we are going to do is strengthen the guild, by doing it, we ensure that all union tourist structures join and become part of CAMTUR. These structures or unions must have strength if we are to work to achieve a true empowerment of each of these organizations. Our guidelines have to emanate from the bottom up and that is why in the process of shaping the new Board of Directors, I focus on ensuring that the new directors were the leaders of each of the organizations that make up CAMTUR”.
National market?
“I would start looking for a way to generate tourist traffic during the weekdays and not just on the weekends. For destinations with little bed inventory, for example Pedasi, our first market should be Panama City. Approximately a million people live there, we have to understand how we bring them to the interior and for that it is necessary to know why they are not arriving, what are the limitations, we must make it easy for them, activate marketing and advertising.
I believe that going to sell the interior to markets such as the United States is not appropriate for destinations that have little inventory of beds, the relationship between beds and market has to be adequate. It’s like having a “tree full of Marañones” in Pedasi and I go to Panama City to sell it, when I can go to Las Tablas and sell it all. When you compare the cost of investment in disproportionate markets with the number of beds, you realize that it is not worth the effort since the return will not be effective”.
Adjacent markets?
“As president of CAMTUR I have to analyze the most efficient way to attract tourists, it seems to me that for the Chiriqui destination, you could talk to Copa Airlines and see if it is attractive for them to make a route between Bogota and David, it seems interesting to me since it could generate economic activity not only from tourism but from other economic sectors. That flight can link with the route that the same airline has between Panama City and David. Chiriqui has a good population, with businessmen from different branches, statistics indicate that the citizen of Bogota seeks within Vacation tourism the Sun and Beach product which Chiriqui has, also with the eco-tourism aggregate in predominant places such as its highlands . In addition, business tourism would be generated by the inventory of human resources and infrastructure that the region has. The other market for that region comes from Central America, which we have to work so that the tourist crossing through our borders is done expeditiously.
In the Azuero area, I think that the most suitable market, to begin with, would be Medellín, it is less than 600 km from the Chitre runway, we could implement a route in 50-passenger airplanes twice a week that links the city with Panama, Chitre and Medellín. A flight on Friday and another Sunday.
The Pacific Riviera with the Rio Hato airport is aimed at larger markets since it has around three thousand rooms, We could operate with 190 passenger planes, they can establish routes for the Sun and Beach product from North and South America”.
What do you have in mind for Panama City?
“I think we have to concentrate on selling the Panama City product for the MICE sector, look for clients to offer the products within the meetings industry, as “The Best Destination for Events and Meetings in Latin America”. This is possible because we have a large inventory of beds, such as 20 thousand, Panama Convention Center and Atlapa additional to the thousands of square meters of rooms that the hotels in the city have, great air connectivity, to this we add tourist attractions such as the Panama Canal, Casco Antiguo, the modern city with restaurants, bars and casinos, Taboga and Contadora, the Metropolitan Park, like some. it would target the great corporations of the world”.
“I prefer to act than criticize .” Photos courtesy: Ovidi
