If you’re one of the people who found it hard to make hotel reservations in Panama, maybe this will shed some light on the situation.

The Global Ranking Index (GRI), a report produced annually by Deloitte, recently released statistics for 2007. The report states that across Central and South America, the revenue per available room increased 19.4% to US$74 in 2007 – which meant it is the world’s fastest growing region in terms of “revenue per available room” growth. Panama City, with occupancy rates of 84.7%, has become the first Latin American city to make it onto the occupancy GRI, the second highest occupancy of any city in the world. The city also achieved the strongest “revenue per available room” growth in Central and South America – up 37.9% to US$121.

So far this year occupancy rates have maintained strong. The rate of tourists entering the country increased 11.6% for the first two months of this year, in comparison to the same period last year, according to the Panamanian Institute of Tourism (IPAT).

In 2007 Ipat launched a multimillion dollar advertising campaign, which they hope will show results over the next five years. This year IPAT is projecting 1.4 million people will visit Panama and lets not forget that Royal Caribbean will start using Panama as a home port starting December 2008.

International Hoteliers are taking note and several hotels are currently under construction, it’s expected that another 7,000 rooms will be added to the current pool by 2010.