1.76 million visitors in the first half of 2026, up 22% year over year, and citywide hotel occupancy at 66% — up 13.8 points from two years ago. What the demand surge supports, and where hotel data and STR data are different animals.
Panama's Tourism Authority (ATP) reported its strongest first half in years on 12 August 2026: 1,755,998 international visitors between January and June, an economic contribution of roughly B/.3,721 million, and hotel occupancy climbing to 66% — up from 52.2% over the same period two years earlier. For anyone underwriting a licensed short-term rental unit in Panama City, that's the demand backdrop worth understanding before the next spreadsheet.
Behind the headline figures: 440,700 direct and indirect jobs tied to tourism, up 12% from 2024; the Panama Stopover program with Copa Airlines carried 132,787 passengers through H1 2026, up 66% from 79,770 two years earlier; and new routes connecting Río Hato to Bogotá (Wingo) and Quito (Aeroregional) are projected to add roughly 12,600 additional visitors and $10 million in economic impact. Panama's tourism board, Camtur, is targeting 4 million visitors for the full year.
A 13.8-point occupancy jump in two years means Panama City's hotel inventory hasn't kept pace with visitor growth. That's the kind of citywide supply-demand imbalance that historically pushes travelers toward alternative lodging — including licensed short-term rentals — when hotels run tight or fill up on peak dates.
ATP's 66% figure is a hotel-sector statistic. Licensed STR product — Kyte, Passage Amador, Euphoria, The Hub, Generation Tower, Uptown — competes in a related but distinct booking pool, with its own occupancy and ADR dynamics that vary by neighborhood, unit type and platform. Rising tourism is favorable context, not a substitute for a project's own numbers.
131 international conventions in 2026, up from 72 in 2024, brings a different kind of traveler — mid-week, expense-account, shorter average stay — into markets that a pure leisure calendar wouldn't reach. That's the kind of demand diversification that smooths an STR unit's calendar rather than concentrating it in a few peak months.
A rising tide of visitors doesn't lift every unit equally — it lifts the ones that are licensed, well-located and professionally managed, and leaves the informal, unlicensed inventory more exposed as enforcement tightens around it.
This sits alongside our coverage of the two bills reshaping Panama's STR regulatory landscape and our breakdown of how to read a real STR ROI model instead of a brochure's headline number. Rising demand is the backdrop; licensing and unit-level underwriting are what actually determine whether a specific unit captures it.