Panama’s Chiriquí Highlands Rise as a Global Eco-Tourism Hub

Written By: Abhirup Gan

Abhirup Gan

I'm Abhirup Gan, a Mass Communication graduate and digital marketing professional. Driven by a passion for storytelling, I create insightful, research-led content that explores tourism trends, destination stories, and hospitality developments with depth and clarity. Through my writing, I hope to inspire readers to discover not only where to travel, but the stories, cultures, and experiences that make every journey meaningful.

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September 10, 2026 19:07 GMT+5:30

Panama is approaching the late summer travel season with unprecedented momentum, whereas its western highlands are gaining importance in the traveler’s experience. Foreign tourist arrivals have risen 17.4 percent in the first half of 2026, recording 1,755,998 tourists, whereas the tourism income has increased 14.7 percent to $3.79 billion. The statistics provide perspective on an overall trend, whereby travelers are utilizing Panama’s network to explore the landscapes away from the capital and canal-oriented itineraries.

Chiriquí Becomes a Gateway to the Highlands

Chiriquí is particularly well positioned for that change. David, the province’s principal urban centre and an important gateway in western Panama, provides the practical base for reaching Boquete, the highlands around Volcán Barú and the coffee-growing districts farther into the mountains. For international visitors, the geography allows a trip to move quickly from an airport-and-city environment into cooler mountain terrain, forest trails and agricultural landscapes.

Boquete has already developed the visitor infrastructure needed for a more experience-led tourism economy. The Panama Tourism Authority’s visitor center in the town has been designed around the region’s biodiversity, volcano landscape, coffee traditions and Ngäbe Buglé cultural heritage. The centre also functions as a point where travellers can gather information about routes and activities before heading farther into the surrounding highlands.

The result is a destination that can support several travel styles within a relatively compact area. Hikers can use Boquete as a base for mountain and forest excursions, birdwatchers can explore habitats shaped by elevation, while travelers interested in food and agriculture can follow the coffee story from cultivated slopes to processing and tasting.

Boquete Puts Coffee at the Center of Travel

The September landscape is especially relevant to Panama’s speciality-coffee tourism. Boquete and the wider Chiriquí highlands are associated with some of the country’s most sought-after coffee, including Geisha, a variety that has become closely connected with Panama’s international speciality-coffee identity. Instead of treating coffee as something encountered only in a café, the region offers opportunities to understand how elevation, cultivation, processing and preparation shape the final cup.

Recent tourism programming has pushed that connection further. La Cosecha 2026, held in Boquete in August, brought together coffee, gastronomy, art and tourism around the farms and communities responsible for the crop. The program included visits to coffee farms and a tasting of the winning coffees from Best of Panama 2026, giving the visitor a direct connection to production rather than presenting coffee simply as a finished product.

For travellers arriving in September, that agricultural dimension fits naturally with the green-season atmosphere of the highlands. Rain can transform the forest into a particularly lush environment, while cloud-covered slopes and cooler temperatures create a different rhythm from Panama’s lowland and coastal destinations. Travel plans, however, need to account for wet-season conditions, especially for longer hikes and rural road journeys.

Cloud Forests Expand the Chiriquí Experience

The coffee route also extends beyond Boquete itself. Chiriquí’s highlands contain farms and rural properties where agriculture can be combined with lodging, hiking, wildlife observation and demonstrations of local production. That creates a more dispersed tourism pattern, with spending reaching farms, guides, small accommodation providers, restaurants and other local businesses rather than remaining concentrated in large urban hotels.

David plays an important supporting role in that network. The city offers accommodation, restaurants, transport services and supplies before visitors continue into the mountains. For travellers building multi-stop itineraries, it can also work as the transition point between western Panama’s different environments, including the highlands and Pacific-facing destinations farther west and south.

Official Link : https://www.atp.gob.pa/la-cosecha-conecta-cafe-y-arte-contemporaneo-con-la-economia-creativa

Local Tourism Gains Greater Importance

This is important for Panama’s attempts to transform its strength in arrivals into lengthening stays and regional economic activity. Indeed, the Panamanian Tourism Authority has been promoting a strategy that involves the participation of local entrepreneurs and destination communities in the process of developing tourism. In September 2026, this organisation released an announcement of a cooperative agreement to enhance the financing, technology transfer, and production capacity of tourism entrepreneurs in areas where there exists potential for tourism. An exploration of Chiriquí can be characterised by international connectivity along with the uniquely local experience chain, which includes starting one’s trip at David, travelling further into the cooler heights of Boquete, hiking through forests and countryside, learning about speciality coffees and meeting small business owners that make up the tourist economy of the region. As such, this makes the province very useful as a slower alternative to the transit focus of Panama. Instead of using western Panama as a route to other places, travellers can plan their days with hiking, coffee tastings, visits to farms, wildlife spotting and dining, thus placing the Highlands in the centre of the itinerary. Therefore, tourism development in Panama has a clearly regional aspect. While the Canal is one of the key draws for tourists in Panama, the western Highlands provide an entirely different reason to visit the country.