Panama is looking to grab a bigger slice of the cruise ship tourism market with the construction of a new cruise ship port and terminal.
The new terminal will be located at Perico Island on the beautiful Amador Causeway. This would place the new port and terminal at the entrance to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal.
The construction has already begun and the contract was awarded to the consortium Cruceros del Pacifico which is lead by the Belgium firm of Jan De Nul and the Chinese firm of China Harbour Engineering Company. This new cruise terminal will have two docks in which two cruise ships with a capacity of up to five thousand passengers each (Oasis class) can berth simultaneously.
“This infrastructure project is key to boost Panama’s economic development,” Juan Carlos Varela, President of the Republic of Panama, said. “It will generate a thousand direct jobs and 1,800 indirect jobs during its construction phase, as well as permanent employees for the operation of the terminal. All this will have a positive impact on the Panamanian economy and on the homes of each of those workers who will be part of this great work.
With close to 260 cruise ships transiting the Panama Canal each year, a full-service port and terminal will entice the cruise ship lines to include Panama City as a new destination. President Varela is hopeful that the port and terminal will be ready for operation by mid-2019.
