Century 21, one of North America's most recognizable real estate franchises, has recently opened a new office in the beach resort community of Coronado, 80 km west of Panama City.

A planned community established in the 1940's, Coronado is a booming complex of developments which inlcudes hotels, a renowned golf course and excellent sports facilities. A complete success among well-to-do Panamanians, Coronado is now becoming popular among the growing number of European and North American expats who have either retired or purchased "second-home" investments in Panama in recent years.

Coronado's Century 21 office also provides information on the hundreds of hectares available in the nearby coastal or mountain areas of the western sector of the province or Panama. The new facility also includes a gourmet coffee shop.

The Century 21 brand in Panama is represented by Semusa, a Panamanian company with over 50 years of experience in real estate and insurance.

For more information, call 270-6052, www.SemusaRealty.com

Management changes at Bern Hotels & Resorts

The administration of Bern Hotels & Resorts recently announced a series of promotions and changes in the management of its main hotels in Panama City:

Mr. Fidel Reyes is the new General Manager of the InterContinental Playa Bonita Resort & Spa, the company’s newest property. Mr. Reyes, who until recently served as Manager of Gamboa Rainforest Resort, has worked for many years in prestigious resorts in Mexico, his native country, and Latin America. He is the current president of Panama’s Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.

Mr. Edgar Pérez is the new Manager of Gamboa Rainforest Resort, after serving as Manager of the Crowne Plaza Panama Hotel in downtown Panama City. Boasting a 20-year career in the industry, Pérez has received the "Manager of the Year Award" granted by the InterContinental Hotels Group on various occasions.

Italian-born Giovanni Cerabona, a specialist in foods and beverages, is the new General Manager of the Miramar InterContinental Hotel. Mr. Cerabona served until recently as Manager of the Playa Bonita Resort.

The Crowne Plaza also has a new Manager: Mr. Arvey Benavides, the former Deputy Manager of the Miramar Intercontinental.

A subdivision of Empresas Bern, Bern Hotels & Resorts has 833 hotel rooms, distributed in the Miramar InterContinental Hotel, the Crowne Plaza Panama, the Suites Ambassador Apartment-Hotel, Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and the InterContinental Playa Bonita Resort & Spa.

Focus Publications, the parent company of The Visitor, will take part in a "Tourist Caravan" (promotional tour) to Colombia, organized by the Panama Government Tourist Bureau this month.

"Tourist Caravans" are part of IPAT’s annual international program, which also includes participation in major tourism fairs in Europe, North and Latin America.

Scheduled October 8-14, the upcoming "Caravana" will visit the Colombian cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín.

Focus’ representatives at the Caravan will be Roquelina González (distributing the FOB Zona Libre catalogue and demonstrating the website colonfreezone.com), and Patricia Puentes (Focus on Panama guide and The Visitor).

The Playa Blanca Resort, on the coast of Coclé, receives a constant flow of charter-plane guests each year.

The charter plane season carrying Canadian and European tourists to the beach resorts of Panama's Pacific coast has started early this year, due to the good weather conditions in the Caribbean region. The first bi-monthly flight from Canada will arrive on October 9. It make stops in Costa Rica until November, when it becomes a non-stop operation.

The Panama Government Tourist Bureau (IPAT) also announces that a charter flight from Finland will arrive every two weeks with 200 "all inclusive" passengers who will spend their vacations on the beach, mountain and city hotels. The Finnish charter program will bring over 2,000 tourists to Panama between October and March.

President of Chiriquí Tourism Chamber pushes for:

Upgrading David's Enrique Malek Airport to handle international jet airliners is one of the short-term goals of the Chiriquí Chamber of Tourism, headed by Mr. Wee-Mingh Fung.

Mr. Fung, who has headed the Chamber since May, 2005, said that the province's increasing popularity as a destination for tourists and expats from Europe and North America has created the need for long-haul international flights to land in David, the alternative to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, located almost 500 km to the east. Although considered "international", the Enrique Malek Airport only handles one small-plane service to Costa Rica (one of two stops between San Jose and Panama City) in addition to its internal flight schedule.

When they land at Tocumen, passengers with a final destination in Chiriquí face a seven-hour drive or a transfer to Marcos Gelabert Airport, in Albrook for an hour's flight to David, which usually involves overnighting in Panama City.

Wee-Mingh Fung, president of the Chiriquí Chamber of Tourism.

Mr. Fung cited the case of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, a region which bears many similarities with Chiriquí in terms of foreign investment and residence. The airport there has only basic facilities, but it has a jet-size land strip, enabling Costa Rican tourist entities to bring in direct flights to the region from the United Startes.

"The David terminal is a nice, well-equipped facility, far better than Guanacaste. We only need to add 300 meters to the runway in order to handle large jets," said Mr. Fung.

Asked whether there would be enough demand in the region to receive direct flights from the United States, Mr. Fung said: "Panama's Government Tourist Board (IPAT) has only focused on promoting Panama City's skyscrapers and casinos. We all know that many tourists and expats want to get away from all of that. They want to enjoy nature and hear the birds sing."

A ship berthed at Colon 2000 cruise terminal.

The arrival of the "Infinity", a luxury vessel of Celebrity Cruises, at Pier 6 of the port of Cristóbal earlier this month signaled the beginning of Panama’s seventh official cruise ship season.

Tourist authorities are expecting the arrival of 200 cruise ships before the end of the season in May, a considerable increase since last year, due in part to a more positive weather forecast for the Caribbean basin this year.

Colón 2000, Panama’s largest cruise facility on the Caribbean, will receive 72 calls this season, one of them being the monthly arrival of the Carnival "Liberty," with capacity for almost 3,000 passengers and 1,600 crew members. The country has three additional cruise ports: Pier 6, also in the Caribbean; Fuerte Amador, on the Pacific, and the Gatún Yach Club, on Lake Gatún.

The Celebrity “Infinity” docked at Pier 6, Cristobal to launch the season.

Although the arrival of over 300,000 cruise passengers this season is expected to inject US$37 million into the country’s economy, Panamanian facilities act only as ports of call, as Panama’s fledging luxury vessel industry still requires a larger number of flight connections in order to achieve a "home port" status. Cruise ship passengers spend an average of 10 hours on the Isthmus, during which they engage in tours of the Panama Canal region, the colonial fortifications of the province of Colón, Native American villages of the Chagres River basin, and shopping excursions in Panama City.

Panama’s cruise industry was officially born in 2000 with the opening of the Colón 2000 terminal, although a number of experimental calls were coordinated between 1997 and 1999. Before that, luxury ships ignored Panamanian ports for more popular Caribbean destinations, although the port cities of Panama and Colón were once considered well-liked ports of call and shopping destinations among in-transit travelers of the old passenger vessels decades ago.

English language radio broadcasting has returned to Panama. A modest start was made on Sunday Oct. 1st with a two-hour program "Sunday at the Metropolis" on 93.5 FM, home of Radio Metropolis.

A cocktail party at Rincon Aleman celebrated the event the following Tuesday.

Panama has not had English language radio since SCN (Southern Command News) went off the air with the departure of U.S. forces at the end of 1999.

The magazine - type programme, includes segments on such themes as health, motoring, sport and local news headlines, interspersed with "middle of the road" pop and some light-hearted banter in the British tones of host "Gerry D" (In real life, Mr. Gerry Dowden).

The program will be aired every Sunday at 7:00p.m. and available any time on www.on-the-radio.com shortly. A daily program is planned leading up to continuous broadcasting within a year.

The venture is the responsibility of a company, Panama Broadcasting Corpora-tion, S.A., formed by a group of British expatriates. Can we expect the PBC to emulate the BBC? Stay tuned!

For more information contact Richard Vizor, rmvizar@yahoo.co.uk