Hotel industry in Panama booming

With an estimated 17,392 new rooms by next year, the hotel industry in Panama is going through a massive transformation. In 2010, the country had a total of 10,000 rooms, but in the past years 20 new hotels have opened including international brands such as Hilton and Marriott and boutique hotels such as the Saba Hotel in Panama City.

In the upcoming year, 14 hotels are expected to open including five-star hotels such as the Waldorf Astoria, the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons.

Also opening this fall is the Hard Rock Hotel, adding 1,500 rooms to the city's capacity. When it opens, it will be one of the biggest hotels in the region.

Named by The New York Times as the number one destination to visit in 2012, Panama has seen its influx of tourists increase considerably. During the first six months of 2012 a total of 1.7 million tourists arrived in the country, which according to the website Estrategia & Negocios represents an increase of 5.2 percent. According to the site, the largest number of tourists come from South America (45 percent) followed by North America (30 percent) and Europe (9 percent).