Six years ago, very few travelers clearly knew what Puerto Rico had to offer tourists. A series of studies commissioned by Discover Puerto Rico revealed that most travelers had a neutral impression of the destination. The enormous task was for travelers to understand better what Puerto Rico offers as a destination.
Since that time, our Island and its tourism industry have made much progress. Today, our tourism brand is stronger than ever before, our Island's tourism product has vastly improved, and Puerto RIco is widely recognized for our recent accomplishments in tourism. But we cannot rest upon our past success if we want to stay on top.
The travel and tourism market are constantly changing. The U.S. Travel Association, the largest organization of tourism professionals in the United States, recently reported a slowdown in the travel market. The same was reported by media outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and Reuters. That trend is expected in U.S. jurisdictions. In the face of high inflation levels, European markets also anticipated changes among travelers who increasingly prefer alternatives that provide more value for their vacation investments.
Given this, we developed a series of initiatives to convert potential travelers into visitors. The adjustment will allow for maintaining high levels of competitiveness and retaining the ground achieved by the industry since 2021, the first of almost four consecutive years of breaking tourism records.
As part of those efforts, we developed initiatives with Expedia, Frontier Airlines, The Points Guy, Times, and the Steller app, which seek to promote lodging sales. Unique activations will also be for "Black Friday," "Travel Tuesday,” and Christmas.
Sales efforts through wholesalers have also been strengthened. In the last three months, Discover Puerto Rico generated over $12 million in sales and $6 million in bookings yet to be finalized. The same was done with agreements with travel consortiums, generating additional sales of $19 million. In the events and convention space, sales of $36 million were generated in the last three months.
Internally, we highlight the special offers that the industry refers to us as part of its sales strategy. If you or your team would like to promote your offer to travelers, please contact our digital marketing team by emailing [email protected] or through our industry portal.
According to the firm Future Partners, the main barriers that the industry must overcome are the perception that traveling is very expensive and the deterioration of the purchasing power of travelers due to accumulated inflation.