Panama Hosts First FIEXPO Latin America, Reinforces Strategy for MICE Tourism

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The 15th edition of FIEXPO Latin America was held in Panama City from June 13-16. One of the region’s leading trade fairs specializing in the meetings industry, the event convened over 2,500 participants, including exhibitors, visitors and industry professionals.

FIEXPO Latin America 2022 was hosted at the new Panama Convention Center, which is set to be the venue for three consecutive years. The event included over 390 exhibitors, 860 hosted buyers and trade visitors, and 9,200 business meetings, all of which is estimated to generate an average of $391 million in business and over $6 million in investment on behalf of the fair at the destination.

The Panama Convention Center, which will host the event until 2024, is located on the Pacific Ocean at the entrance of the Panama Canal. The venue has an exhibition hall spanning 165,764 square feet, 16 meeting rooms spanning 25,833 square feet, and can accommodate 23,000 persons.

In terms of hotels, Panama City has approximately 20,000 rooms, besides 10,000 rooms throughout the rest of the country. Visitors can move from one coast to the other in a matter of hours, making it the only place in the world where visitors can see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean and set over the Caribbean Sea in the same day.

The recent implementation of Panama’s new tourism brand platform “Live for More” reinforces the offer for those visiting for meetings or conferences. The campaign inspires meeting planners to participate in the country’s cultural and tourism experiences, such as appreciation of its historical heritage, visits to ethnic communities, natural parks, Caribbean beaches and the Panama Canal.

The country’s 2020-2025 Sustainable Tourism Master Plan, recognized by UNESCO as an example of innovation and sustainability, highlights the fundamental pillars of the country’s heritage including cultural heritage (multifaceted culture), green heritage (extraordinary biodiversity) and blue heritage (ocean wonders). Examples include the work that the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) is undertaking with local and indigenous communities to revive tourism in several areas. In the Panama Canal Watershed, visitors can travel up the Gatun Lake to visit the Embera community–one of seven indigenous communities that inhabit Panama. In Bocas del Toro, the government collaborates with coastal Afro-Antillean communities to highlight the region’s cuisine which originates from Caribbean roots and has evolved over decades of local influence. In the Chiriquí Highlands, where the Ngäbe and Buglé indigenous communities harvest the prized Geisha coffee, the government has expanded its coffee circuit to include a variety of tourism experiences at local farms.

With over 30 local exhibitors, the Visit Panama booth stand welcomed agents and meeting planners with daily activations that offered a quick glimpse of the country’s offerings and educational information about the destination.