After the shutdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Puerto Rico’s tourism sector has shown an exponential recovery, both in leisure and business travel, confirmed Edward Zayas, chief strategy officer of Discover Puerto Rico (DMO).

“Yes, both leisure and business travel have grown,” Zayas confirmed in an interview with The News Journal.

According to DMO’s data, the number of room contracts related to groups of travelers for conventions, events and business increase substantially from 9,639 for 2019 to 44,817 for this year.

In calendar year 2022, the island nearly duplicate the number of rooms associated with Convention Center groups with 40,180, up from 20,930 the previous year.

The economic impact of business events booked in 2022 exceeded $41 million, up 160% from 2021. The number of events scheduled for 2024 is 22% higher than last year.

For this year, about eight events will be held, representing about 10,163 room reservations requested and an economic impact of approximately $17.7 million. Likewise, in the 2024 calendar there are 27 events representing more than 44,300 reservations and an estimated economic impact of $37.8 million.

The next conventions to be held in Puerto Rico this year will be the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), in September; the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA), in October, and the Travel and Tradeshow News Network (TSNN) awards, also in October.

Meanwhile, according to the results of the travel industry trends for 2023, published by the Mastercard Economics Institute, business travel is recovering “at the same pace as leisure travel”.

However, the same study revealed that leisure travel remains the strongest in the Caribbean, when compared to pre-pandemic (2019) levels. Flight bookings for Puerto Rico increased by 115.7%, being overtaken by the Dominican Republic with 221.4% and Jamaica with 128.7%.

Likewise, growth versus March 2022 in flight bookings was 32.9% for Puerto Rico.

The growth is validated by Discover data, in which passenger numbers grew by 9.3% for 2022, when compared to pre-pandemic levels. While in the U.S. they are still below at 10.2%.

“When you look at these numbers, there is growth happening, and it is happening at regional airports as well, not just at the San Juan airport,” Zayas stressed.

Traveler Spending Increases

For his part, the DMO executive noted that another indicator of tourism growth in Puerto Rico is tourist spending, which increased by 38.5%, reaching a total of $8.7 billion of which 75% is from foreigners.

According to the Mastercard study, spending on business travel and entertainment is also growing in the Latin America and Caribbean region, 27% for small businesses and 48% for large companies, when comparing March 2023 versus the same month in 2022.

However, despite the accelerated growth that the industry has seen after the emergence of the pandemic, which is expected to continue for 2024 and 2025, Zayas understands that it should soon begin to slow down.

“The numbers we’re seeing so far are still growing, but obviously at some point the trend is not going to be as steep. At some point it’s going to stabilize and there’s going to be growth, that’s the projection, but so brutal like this is very extraordinary, it should return to normal growth,” Zayas anticipated.