Puerto Rico leaders hope to lure tourists back by Christmas

Three-quarters of residents in Puerto Rico still don't have power, but San Juan was just named one of the best cities to visit in 2018 by Lonely Planet, the popular guide book publisher. Tourism industry officials hope they'll come even sooner: They want tourists back before Christmas.
José Izquierdo, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, said the primary focus is on rebuilding right now, but he hopes the island will be open for tourists by December 20. The high season for Caribbean tourism usually lasts from December until May.
Izquierdo pointed out that airports and cruise ports are operational, and more than 100 hotels are open and operating. He said some hotels are already accepting new reservations and others are almost fully occupied thanks to the influx of thousands of federal first responders and volunteers from humanitarian aid organizations that have come to help rebuild the island.
"NGOs are flocking to Puerto Rico to travel with a purpose," he said. "It's tourism nonetheless, and they're getting to sample our hospitality and the generosity of our people." 
Hurricane Maria is projected to cost $15 billion in lost economic productivity on top of $22 billion in physical damages, according to Chuck Watson, director of research and development at disaster research group Enki Research. Many are concerned the storm will dent the once-growing tourism industry in Puerto Rico. 
Cristina Salvesen, a dive instructor and manager at Black Beard Sports in Vieques, said she's had guests cancel reservations as far off as February. She said she spent four hours just canceling and refunding customers when she finally got Internet access after the devastating storm.
“When you depend on tourism and your job depends on it, your livelihood depends on it, the island you live in depends on it, it hurts,” she said. 
She said although the island is still in survival mode, "it’s going to get to a point where we’re gonna need those people to move the economy."
Tourism contributed in total more than $8.1 billion to Puerto Rico’s economy, or 8% of the island’s GDP, in 2016 according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. More than 68,500 jobs are connected to the tourism industry.
But bringing traditional tourists back to the island is not just an issue of rebuilding infrastructure, it’s a matter of marketing.
"We have been following the situation on the ground closely since the impact of Hurricane Maria last month, and while relief efforts are currently ongoing, we believe that Puerto Rico's capital will surprise the world with how quickly it gets back on its feet," said Lonely Planet's Central America and Caribbean destination editor Bailey Freeman in a press release.
The problem is a double-edged sword, explained Rochelle Turner, research director for the World Travel and Tourism Council. Tourists may not come if they believe the island hasn’t fully recovered, but if their expectations aren’t managed, dissatisfied customers could seriously damage the prospect for repeat visits.
“There are no real answers,” Turner said.“There’s a lot of perception issues that people need to overcome.”
To combat this, Turner said the industry will have to pivot its marketing strategy to appeal to new customers.
Promoting ecotourism, for example, may not be viable if natural attractions — like the mystical, glow-in-the-dark biobays and the tropical oasis of El Yunque rainforest — don't fully rebound after the storm.
“The recovery rates will be very, very different depending on what they are relying on in terms of their markets,” she said.
Izquierdo, of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, said he sees this as chance for the island to distinguish itself as a tourist destination, with San Juan at its heart. 
"We’re seeing an opportunity as well to really revamp our product and use this hiatus to reassess where we’re at and where we want to go as a tourism destination," he said
Izquierdo is optimistic. He said he's grateful for the island's “hurricane-proof” generosity.
"Our focus right now is with the people that are here," he said. "We really need it right now, there's no need to be shy about asking for help."

Puerto Rico leaders hope to lure tourists back by Christmas

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IMF Executive Board Discusses the First Assessment of Eligible Countries under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative

On December 21, 2005 the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) established the list of countries that qualify for debt relief from the Fund under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Debt relief delivery, which could start as soon as January 3, 2005, is now conditional on getting the consents of all the contributors to the Subsidy Account of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) Trust, whose contributions help finance the Initiative. The MDRI will deliver debt relief from the Fund to qualifying members countries with an annual per capita income at or below US$380, and to countries above the threshold that have reached the completion point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The implementation of the MDRI will reduce the external debt burden of a number of the world's poorest countries and will provide additional resources to help them reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Background The Executive Board appro...
Read more

Oil’s chaotic collapse deepens; stocks drop worldwide

Image
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices crumpled even further Tuesday, and U.S. stocks sank to their worst loss in weeks as worries swept markets worldwide about the economic carnage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The market’s spotlight was again on oil, where prices have plummeted because very few people are flying or driving, and factories have shut amid widespread stay-at-home orders. Global demand is set to drop to levels last seen in the mid 1990s. At the same time, oil producers can’t slow their production fast enough, and all the extra crude means storage tanks are quickly running out of room. The cost for a barrel of U.S. oil to be delivered in June plunged 43% to $11.57. That’s the part of the market that oil traders are focused on and trading most actively. For oil to be delivered next month, which is when storage tanks could top out, the cost of a barrel stood at $10.01. A day earlier, it fell below zero for the first time, meaning traders paid others to take oil off their hand...
Read more

Mapping Extreme Poverty Around the World A new report from the

Image
A new report from the  World Bank  just landed, finding that a record low of 10% of humanity now live in extreme poverty, down from 11% in 2013. But poverty rates aren’t anywhere close to equal between continents or even countries, as our new series of maps clearly demonstrates. The World Bank provides an in-depth explanation for its methodology, which you can find in Appendix A of the full report  here . We focused on the percentage of people in each country living below what the World Bank defines as extreme poverty, or $1.90/day. We’ll let the researchers defend this definition on their own, but there is one caveat to keep in mind. It can be extraordinarily difficult to collect reliable data from so many countries on a regular basis, and in fact we used the latest year in which numbers were available whenever possible. For example, in some of these maps we compare 2011 figures against 2015. In short, our maps provide the clearest possible apples-to-apples compa...
Read more