Panama Is Done Selling Beaches. Now It's Selling Butterflies.

Panama's 2026 Tourism Strategy Goes Beyond the Canal

Gloria De León, administrator of Panama's tourism authority ATP, says the country has moved past post-pandemic recovery and is now focused on strengthening and modernizing the sector. The 2026 strategy promotes an integrated offer combining culture, biodiversity, gastronomy, and nature — with Bocas del Toro, the Panamanian Caribbean, Casco Antiguo, and the Azuero Peninsula all remaining central priorities.

The numbers from 2025 back up the momentum. The Panama Stopover program, run with Copa Airlines, blew past its original goal of 185,000 visitors and closed the year with more than 200,000. Overall international arrivals grew 5 percent. Panama also hosted more than 100 international events in 2025, with over 60 already confirmed for 2026 — a segment authorities say generates broad economic impact across hospitality, transport, and services.

Infrastructure is catching up to the ambition. Between eight and ten tourism projects are currently underway, several backed by the Inter-American Development Bank. Recent completions include visitor centers in Boquete and Pedasí and a tourism information center on Isla Colón in Bocas del Toro. A new tourist insurance program is set to launch in 2026. The ATP's Empreturismo program is also seeding new ventures in Santa Catalina, Taboga, Boquete, and Boca Chica with capital and technical support.

Gobble's Take: Panama is building real infrastructure around its best destinations — the window to visit before the crowds catch on is closing faster than you think.

Source: Casa Solution

Boquete in January: 100,000 People, One Mountain Town, and the World's Most Expensive Coffee

Every January, the highland town of Boquete — population roughly 25,000 — absorbs more than 100,000 visitors in twelve days. The occasion is the International Flower and Coffee Fair, held this year from January 7–18, 2026, along the banks of the Caldera River in the Chiriquí highlands. The air smells like orchids and freshly roasted Geisha beans, and the streets fill with floral installations that take local growers months to prepare.

The fair began in 1950 as a modest coffee festival and expanded in 1973 to include the region's renowned flower gardens, eventually finding its permanent January home to take advantage of Panama's dry season. Today it's one of the most attended cultural events in the country: over 100 exhibitors, artisan markets, traditional Panamanian folk dancing, an amusement area for families, and direct-from-farm sampling of Geisha coffee — the variety that routinely sells at auction for over $1,000 per pound. If you've ever wanted to understand what that price is about, this is the place to do it.

Boquete sits about 45 minutes from the city of David (served by Copa Airlines from Panama City, roughly 55 minutes), and accommodation books out early for fair week. If you're planning to go, January is not the month to wing it.

Gobble's Take: A cup of Geisha at the source costs a fraction of what you'd pay at a specialty café in New York — January in Boquete is the best value in coffee tourism on the planet right now.

Source: The Visitor Panama

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• Royal Caribbean Is Back in Colón After Nine Years — And Air Transat Is Following
• Bocas del Toro's Luxury Makeover: The Viceroy Resort Nears Opening
• Why Everyone Keeps Flying Copa — And Why Tocumen Is the Secret
• Book Now or Pay More: Jet Fuel Prices Are Hitting Panama Routes
• Beyond the Canal: Pavel and Yvonne Go Deep on Panama's Living History