The National Chamber of Tourism of Panama proposed this Thursday to facilitate the entry of passengers to reactivate the ailing sector, since at "these times" the country has a "golden opportunity" by having a low incidence in cases and a rapid vaccination process against covid-19.

"It is clear that, at this time, Panama has a golden opportunity. Unlike many countries in the region, we are at a point of stability with positive trends that the country cannot miss," the Chamber said in a statement.

The union put forward four proposals to reactivate tourism, one of the sectors hardest hit after the 2020 debacle due to the pandemic with millions in losses and businesses closed.

Thus, they asked to replace a current decree that establishes restrictive measures for the entry of passengers to the country "with a simple and flexible regulatory framework that facilitates tourism, without lowering the sanitary guard at any time."

The Chamber stated that this new framework must "facilitate" the entry of passengers with the completed vaccination process against covid-19 carrying a document that evidences it and negative proof of origin 72 hours in advance.

In the case of unvaccinated passengers, they proposed eliminating the preventive quarantine, the second test on arrival, as well as modifying the list of "high-risk countries."

They also reiterated the elimination of quarantine "at this stage of the pandemic, based on the figures from Panama" or use it "very sparingly and on time."

Currently, among the requirements that Panama requests for the entry of passengers from various destinations, including South America, the main market for Panamanian tourism, is to carry out mandatory quarantines and carry out two PCR tests.

To this they added that it should "simplify the entry into the country for tourists and eliminate selectivity with the request for the 500 dollars in cash, increase international efforts to promote the destination" and implement from Customs "traffic lights to speed up airport departures."

The National Chamber of Tourism of Panama (Camtur) announced that this year they will hold the fifth edition of the event "Integration and Innovation, Keys to the Recovery of Sustainable Tourism in Panama", which seeks to cover all the actors in the sector with the implementation of the Master Plan of Sustainable Tourism.

Panama's economy slumped 17.9% last year during the pandemic, while the hotel sector closed with a loss of $ 480 million. Currently the hotel occupancy does not reach 10% according to the data of the sector.