In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Fernando Fondevila, CEO of Promtur Panama.
What are the sensations of being at a fair like this?
It is a fairly busy fair, very superior. Just from the number of visitors to our booth I can say that there is a lot of enthusiasm and interest about Panama. We have carried out some activations with the purpose of attracting international buyers together with strategic allies of the country, among them Lufthansa City Center, and its network of suppliers. They were present here making contact and networking with the suppliers that we bring from Panama so that there is more synergy, they get to know each other and can develop business together.
Is there news regarding airlines and connectivity?
We have just launched, together with Air Europa, the renewal of our cooperation and commercialization marketing agreement. We had already worked from March 2022 to February 2023, and the agreement at that time produced 18,000 more passengers. And an economic impact of more than 160 million, which motivated us to work on a renewal agreement now for 24 months, to promote Panama from Spain, France and Germany, which are 3 of our main emitting countries on the European continent. The agreement estimates that we will capture an economic impact of approximately 430 million. We will use all the airline's digital channels such as its landing page and its in-flight magazine, with fresh content that we created from Panama to really have that visual interest, publicizing why you should visit Panama.
We will also do some activations with travel agencies and the airline has presented us within the work plan to do actions in the external media that they are hiring to promote Panama. It is a very complete agreement and we are super motivated.
Has the airline increased its capacity on flights to Europe?
Exactly, now they have 6 frequencies a week and they have placed the largest plane in their fleet, which not only adds an additional frequency, but obviously encourages the destination. We are super motivated.
From Promtur they are working and generating actions with the community, tell me about it.
Present here are the finalists of the contests for innovative community tourism experiences, presenting their tourism offer that promotes authentic experiences from their regions. We seek to decentralize tourism, so that this economic spillover reaches other regions of the country, not only in the capital city, but also that there is social development of small communities that have tourist attractions that we want to make known. That's why they are here, they came, they have godfathers and godmothers. The winner is also being represented, although the winner is not here at the present show. He has been at the Adventure Tourism Association fair, also in Japan, and presenting to the entire North American market the new tourist experience in Panama, which was the winner.
Sustainability continues to be one of the bases of Panama as tourism, isn't it?
This stand recreates a part of our old town in Panama City. 95% of the material is recycled and 90% is reusable. We have sustainable tourism carried out by a plan that seeks to decentralize tourism and generate economic benefits, and at the same time, we take care of the environment, and this is how we are representing it in this international fair, as we also do in all the ones we participate in. here onwards.