Within the framework of this renowned international event of the MICE tourism sector, Travel2latam had the opportunity to talk with Demetrio Maduro, General Manager of JW Marriott Panama.
What are the novelties of the Hotel and how is it working this season?
At 6 months of the year, the hotel is doing very well and positively growing. The hotels in Panama are noticing that this year we are returning to normality, to the high season and the lowest season, where the demand in the months of June, July and August seems to be a little lower than it was before pandemic, but we continue to work hard anyway. Corporate business has returned strongly to hotels and groups as well. Our hotel continues to try to ensure its evolution and innovation, and plans are already underway for room renovations next year.
The bet they made with FIEXPO was really surprising. How do you prepare for such an event?
Being the host hotel, we have worked very closely with them, and in the part of the convention center, Promtur has done an exceptional job and thank God we have had the presence of the majority of the buyers and participants for Panama. The general organization in everything we have been able to see has been wonderful and I think that all the buyers leave with a very positive vision of the country, which is what is important.
What is your vision for the remainder of the year and what will be especially 2024?
I believe that the so-called low occupancy season in Panama will return for the next few months, but we see that demand will continue to grow for the last three or four months of the year, especially the part of the group in the months of October and November. We know that Christmas preparations begin in December, but it looks positive anyway, so it's going to be an interesting end of the year, not only for this hotel but for many others in the city and inland. The interior may continue to suffer a bit from the occupation during the week, but we continue to try to ensure that Panama is presented with an image where tourism can be had all year round as it happens in other countries. So 2024 at the moment the numbers also in the high season look as positive as last year,
This hotel stands out for a lot of issues, one of which is the human resource that is so valuable… How do you work to have the staff in these conditions?
Since we belong to Marriott, we have all the standards and above all the most important part for our company, which is continuous training, the daily review of the guests' needs in comments; that can be positive or comments to work on and analyze, the drive to continue growing in the implementation of JW's quality service, and of course, for Marriott one crucial thing is to ensure the growth of each one of them in order to continue developing important talents for this growing company.