EVERYBODY WANTS A PIECE of the action. As tourism grows and visitors are venturing out of Panama City, businessmen in provinces of the "interior" are vying for their business. The latest news comes from the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera where a group of enterprising businessmen from the provinces of Los Santos and Herrera have created the Azuero Cluster.

La Arena, Chitré: Handcraft shop in La Arena, province of Herrera.

The organization encompasses eleven companies, all of them related to the tourist sector. They have united forces with the aim of transforming this fledgling industry into one of the biggest sources of income in the area.

The Azuero group is one of the six tourist clusters of the program "Compite Panama" and works under the motto. "Azuero, resort destination...under the sun".

View from Villa Marina.

Ivy Vergara, technical co-coordinator of the project said: "The Azuero Cluster wants its region to become a recognized tourist destination and achieve the highest standards of quality".

This cluster, with the financial help of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) created a marketing and strategic plan to promote tourism in Azuero. Now they have a web site: www.azueroturistico.com, promotion material in a variety of formats like cds, maps, and magazines among other items to help to market the region.

Isla Iguana located off Pedasi.

More than $20,000 were invested in this project and 80 per cent of this money was contributed by the IDB and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The other 20 per cent was raised by the members of the cluster.

The cluster is currently busy promoting the carnival of Las Tablas and other events that happen with great regularity in the area.