The Panama paradox: tourism booms with hotels half-empty

A boom in the tourism industry of Panama contains a paradox: the nation's hotels are half-empty.

Some two million tourists visit each year a country that has a population of only 4 million people, and the income from tourism amounts to about &6.9 billion a year.

These statistics are very encouraging, but hotel occupancy rates are the opposite. In 2008, occupancy rates stood at 67 percent, but last year they had fallen to 47 percent largely due to a disproportionate growth of new accommodation.