Wednesday, December 28 2011 Telemetro:

At least 2 million tourists visited Panama in 2011, generating estimated revenues of more than $2.5 billion dollars, said Panama's Tourism Minister Solomon Shamah. In 2011 "we have reached 2 million visitors," and we could reach 2.1 million by year's end, Shamah told reporters.

The income of $2.5 billion dollars places tourism as one of the most important sources of income for Panama, together with the Panama Canal, the Colon Free Trade Zone, and the banking center. "We are 3.3 million people and we seen our two millionth visitor. When did we Panamanians ever think we were going to see that?" said the official. Shamah said the figure of 2 million visitors per year was a goal established by the government of Ricardo Martinelli which they had hoped to achieve by 2014, his last year in office. (Telemetro)