The Panama Hotel Association (Apatel)  is calling for more economic resources for the International Tourism Promotion Fund, which has a budget of $20 million a year a figure well below that spent by other countries in the region.

During the act of taking office as re-elected president of the Board of Directors of the Association Armando Rodríguez, said that other countries invest between $40 million to $100 million on their international promotion.

"The positive thing is that we have an infrastructure" to serve the tourist. What we need is to get is more capital for the promotion fund because we are going to have to compete with major  destinations", said  Rodríguez,

Last year the Panamanian president, Juan Carlos Varela, signed the internal regulations of the Promotion Fund, whose annual budget is $20 million.

From August to December 2018, the Fund disposed of $8 million dollars, and the remaining $12 million will be received from January to July of this year, according to official information.

The trust funds created by law are used to promote Panama abroad through public and private management that has contributions from the central government, municipalities and private companies.

For the hospitality industry, Rodríguez said that Apatel will encourage three pillars, - raising tourism as a State policy, promoting the Capital of the Tourism Promotion Fund and achieving more training of human resources.

In a statement to Acan-Efe that he expects hotel occupation to grow 3% in 2019. At the end of 2018 it was around 40 percent.

He added that in recent years thousands of jobs have been lost within the sector,

The administrator of the Tourism Authority (ATP), Gustavo Him said that the country has intensified with the international promotion campaigns in the key markets of North America, South America, and Europe. But observers familiar with tourism promotion say that the money spent is minuscule compared to other countries.

Him  also stressed that the Government's investments in infrastructure and convention centers will strengthen the country as a destination

According to figures from the ATP, in the period from January to September last year  1,821,657 visitors arrived in the country, w a decrease of 2.8 percent compared to the same period in 2017, that is, 52,206 fewer people.

Tourism represents around 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Panama, one of the most dynamic countries in the region, which in 2017 experienced economic growth of 5.4 percent.