Betting on the Boomers

Everyone presents their own opinion, rightfully sobut in many cases without knowing the facts, about the distribution of visitors that we want to take into account not only to increase the current sluggish number of tourists, but also to maximize the income that we want to generate as a result of our investment of time and money in advertising, marketing and development of tourist sites.

At the end of the last century, in short supply enough accommodation To meet the goals of reviving tourism and as a result of generous legislation, the property investor market has seen the biggest boom in our history, lifting our capital to the third highest number of skyscrapers on the continent, just behind New York and Chicago.

During the first decade of the century, foreign investors flocked to our country like bees in a hive and many of them acquired luxury real estate, and even a significant number decided on Panama as a place for permanent retirement or a second home. We can still observe this cluster, despite the fact that its quantity is no longer so great, especially in the corridors of the Chiriqui mountains, The Pacific Riviera, the southern end of the Azuero Peninsula and the capital of the isthmus.

At that time, prestigious multinational companies, where we can highlight frequent seminars International Living Magazine, they have used their marketing machine heavily to single out Panama as the #1 place in the world to retire in multiple annual polls.

Due to lack of will, action and lack of political priorities, our national authorities and tourism did not use the moment to consolidate this ambitious initiative, eroding its shining courage, withdrawing its enthusiasm.

We would like to emphasize our touristic approach baby boomer group, defined by people born between 1946 and 1964 in the United States, the result population explosion after the second world war. This is the wealthiest generation in universal history, amassing $78 trillion in assets, putting the average family worth over $1.18 million, controlling 70% of disposable income in the United States.

It is impressive that 10,000 people are added to the figure of 56 million daily retirees in the United States. Even more from a tourism perspective, considering that the average American enjoys only one week of vacation per year and more limited resources, our target should be concentrated on this segment of his population.

Agglutinated in corpulent AARP organization (American Association of Retired Persons) whose bimonthly is the third largest publication in the United States, with more than 35 million subscribers and 38 million members, is becoming a solid medium for advertising our tourism, complementing efforts with an active presence at the annual convention and multiple regional meetings to highlight our attractions.

Transiting the Panama Canal, as a romantic souvenir of America’s colonial presence in the region in the early twentieth century, is the most attractive route for North American cruise passengers, above Caribbean, Mediterranean and Alaska, among other options. We could make good use of this bubbling interest in the channel to develop attractive theme parks run by world-leading companies such as Disney, National Geographic and Smithsonianwhich is located on the shore of the lake Gatun, enabling mandatory docking of all cruise ships, overnight stay in order to more generously expose our other tourist magnets.