Panama’s Ocean2Ocean Makes a Splash in the Russian Market

Ocean2Ocean, a company based in Panama, is an incoming tour operator authorized by Panama’s Tourism Authority since 2008.

The company has been operating in Russia for eight years. Olga Gutierrez, the group’s general manager, sat down with Caribbean News Digital’s editor-in-chief and CEO of the Excelencias Group, Jose Carlos de Santiago, during the MITT 2016 fair recently held in Moscow.

Ocean2Ocean has been successful in the Russian market, especially last year when the company chalked up a staggering 30 percent increase. That means a figure in the neighborhood of 500 to 600 travelers in the course of 2015 alone. And well-heeled Russians, not the middle class, are the ones traveling to every nook and cranny of Panama now, Mrs. Gutierrez says.

“Panama City attracts many visitors. Most of them are surprised by the fact that we have such a large capital, and that’s something they don’t expect to find. We also have the beaches and our gorgeous nature, our Soberania National Park,” she explains.

“They also visit San Blas, but not in big numbers. They actually prefer the luxury infrastructure. That keeps them away from San Blas, because Russian tourists, VIPs or individual tourists are paying a lot of money, so they want VIP attention, VIP accommodation, and we don’t have that in San Blas.”

The Central American country is just about to inaugurate the expanded Panama Canal that will support huge freighters and cargo ships. But for decades, the Canal and its surroundings –especially the free trade zones and other commercial facilities- have been sought after by tourists from everywhere under the sun. The Russians are no exception to the rule.

“Of course Russian tourists visit the Canal. Not even one of them ignores the Canal. In fact, that’s the first place most of them want to visit. Many of these visitors have told that they’ve dreamed about seeing the Canal since they were children, and their dream comes true. We have seen curious cases of people that spend hours and hours looking at ships as they sail through the Canal,” Mrs. Gutierrez goes on to say.

But the buck doesn’t stop there. Russians tourists visiting Panama get delighted by the local cuisine and as much as 20 percent of all enjoy rolling their dice in the casinos. However, Russian tourists are very special and they like getting what they pay for.

“They go to Panama looking for good service, zero worries, beach, sun, good gastronomy, adventure, nice destinations to visit. We actually lack of places where they can go with children, there are no amusement parks and we unfortunately don’t have water parks. It would be great to have these elements,” the general manager of Ocean2Ocean adds.  

“Russian visitors easily spend $1,500 to $2,000 dollars in a restaurant. They are big spenders. Russian tourists pay for good hotels, buy tours, go shopping, they spend a big deal of money. They don’t pull their punches in restaurants. And their meals are always accompanied by a good wine,” Mrs. Gutierrez says.

However, Panama and Ocean2Ocean understands the challenges on the road ahead when it comes to catering to the Russian markets. That includes getting what tourists want to have when visiting the country in terms of food and services. Not everything, she implies, is a bed of roses.

“We always receive complains because of the lack of natural juices. They ask about fresh juices, not canned ones. They always order natural juice and they don’t understand the reason why they can’t find natural juice in a tropical country, which is supposed to have plenty of fruits,” she admits.

“We shamefully receive complains related to the services, but cordiality is not the problem: Panamanians are very friendly. The point is that the people of Panama are sometimes kind of slow if compared to speed of the Russians, who are used to living like in the fast lane, at a white-heat’s pace and they are still tense when they come. They want everything to be fast,” she goes on to explain.

Mrs. Gutierrez, who attended the MITT fair for the first time this year, said to be happy with the opportunity to visit Moscow and be a part of this amazing tradeshow.

“I had already participated in Leisure. I think that’s the most suitable show for the Panamanian market, for the Latin American market. It’s great to be here. We need to pay attention to this market. It can be very beneficial to Panama. Perhaps we won’t receive daily or weekly charters from this market, but these people do come and spend,” she concluded.