Demand for Puerto Rico air travel, lodging brisk in Q3
Discover Puerto Rico reports promising trends and special promotions to maintain momentum.
The first half of 2024 saw new increases in air passengers, lodging demand and visitor spending, solidifying the continued growth of the tourism industry in Puerto Rico, Discover Puerto Rico, the island’s destination marketing organization (DMO), announced in its Industry Update Report.
The trend is expected to continue during the third quarter (Q3) of the year, with air ticket reservations 19% higher than the same date last year, and reservations for hotel rooms and short-term accommodations up by 6% and 27% respectively, according to an analysis by the DMO based on information from data platforms such as TravelClick, Key Data and ForwardKeys.
“For the fourth consecutive year, Puerto Rico continues to outperform many of our competitors and peer destinations in the U.S. mainland as well as the Caribbean, and that’s very encouraging to see,” said Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico.
“Whether we consider visitor demand, tourism revenues, tourism-related tax collections or employment throughout the visitor economy, it’s clear that 2024 is going to be yet another great year for our industry and our island,” he added.
Recently, the World Tourism Organization recognized Puerto Rico as the second fastest-growing jurisdiction in the world after the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association highlighted Puerto Rico as the Caribbean jurisdiction with the highest year-on-year growth in tourists in 2024.
“This is another indicator of just how much progress we’ve made together in recent years,” Dean said.
Special promos in the works
To continue the growth pattern, Discover Puerto Rico is currently developing a series of special promotions and ad placements with entities and brands with global reach such as Hulu, Afar Media, iHeart Radio, the New York Yankees and Hearst Media, which includes publications such as Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Runners World and Town & Country Magazine.
“We are increasing our visibility in the summer to keep Puerto Rico prominent in the minds of travelers in the second half of the year,” said Leah Chandler, the DMO’s chief marketing officer.
The promotions with the Yankees include a day in which the advertising of the stadium will be dominated by Discover Puerto Rico with ads that will be seen in broadcasts from Yankee Stadium, the distribution of T-shirts with a message encouraging people to visit the island, and active promotions on the field.
The events and conventions markets are also seeing increasing demand for Puerto Rico as a destination. Discover Puerto Rico reported that between July 2023 and April this year, the events and conventions segment generated around $158 million, in part due to a 7% growth in reservations and a 28% increase in nights of reserved accommodations.
