On August 19, 2025, Representative Roberto José Federico Zúñiga Alvarado presented Draft Bill No. 141 to National Assembly President Jorge Herrera; it was subsequently designated Bill No. 385. Eleven additional representatives co-sponsored the measure: Eduardo Alejandro Gaitán Beitía, Janine Prado Castaño, Jorge Isaac Bloise Iglesias, Yamireliz Daymirelkis Chong Smith, Miguel Ángel Campos Lima, Carlos Eduardo Saldaña López, Manuel Alberto Samaniego Rodríguez, Alexandra María Brenes Samaniego, Lenín Alberto Ulate Rodríguez, Augusto Efraín Palacios Muñoz, and Patsy Cristina Lee Rentería de Huang. The Commerce and Economic Affairs Commission, chaired by Representative Ernesto Cedeño Alvarado, adopted the bill on September 16, 2025.

Article 1 sets out the bill's central objective: to promote comprehensive, decentralized, and sustainable tourism development in communities with high historical, cultural, natural, and social value across the national territory, grounded in heritage conservation and the strengthening of national identity. Article 3 creates the National Tourism and Heritage Development Program known as Paraísos del Istmo, which will identify, certify, strengthen, and promote communities by recognizing them as comprehensive tourist destinations. The Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) will administer the program, develop an official brand with its logo — state property under Article 7 — and grant certifications by administrative resolution.

The bill's explanatory memorandum cites data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census: in 2024, tourism represented 3.5% of GDP and generated more than 236,000 direct and indirect jobs — 11% of the labor market. Tocumen International Airport moved more than 10 million passengers in 2024, a 7% increase, although 72% are connecting passengers. The initiative aims precisely to convert that transit traffic into extended stays that benefit communities in the interior of the country. The model of reference, detailed in the explanatory memorandum, is Mexico's Pueblos Mágicos program, which grew from 32 communities in 2001 to 177 in 2023 and now contributes 8.6% of Mexico's tourism GDP.

The certification procedure, governed by Articles 10 through 14, requires mayors to submit to the Tourism Authority a dossier including an inventory of attractions, a local tourism development plan, a socioeconomic assessment, conservation plans for tangible and intangible heritage, strategies for professionalizing human capital, and a mapped proposal of the tourist polygon. The Authority will have 60 calendar days to verify technical and documentary compliance, after which it will grant certification with an initial validity of five years, renewable. Grounds for revocation range from deterioration of heritage to false information in annual reports.

Program financing, established in Article 20, draws from three sources: 5% of the decentralization funds that municipalities receive from the General State Budget, earmarked for the program within their respective jurisdictions and transferred to the Tourism Authority; 1.5% of the Authority's own capital investment budget; and municipalities' own revenues derived from fees, licenses, and services associated with running the destination. The Executive Branch must regulate the law within six months of its promulgation and prepare the National Strategic Plan within the same period.

The legislative timeline was as follows: First Debate approved January 20, 2026; Second Debate approved April 28, 2026; Third Debate approved April 30, 2026; sent to the Executive Branch May 8, 2026. With 55 pages and 32 articles, the bill completed its final procedural step in fewer than nine months from introduction — an unusual pace for an initiative of this scope. Promulgation would make Panama the first Central American country with a national heritage certification program analogous to Mexico's Pueblos Mágicos or Colombia's Pueblo Patrimonio.