‘Confidence’ as Puerto Rico room count grows
Officials are targeting niches such as gastronomy and the wedding/honeymoon crowd.
D E S TIN A TIO N S
Puerto Rico’s occupancy numbers
averaged 80% in the first quarter of 2011, a 4% jump over the
same period last year, according
’ cb
r 8
By Gay Nagle Myers
to Gabriel Emanuelli, the Puerto
Rico Tourism Co.’s director of
sales and marketing for North
America.
The destination’s current hotel
inventory totals 13,200 rooms in
.
155 properties.
“We’re encouraged by that increase and by the number of hotel openings scheduled in the next
two years,” Emanuelli said.
“The openings demonstrate
confidence in our tourism prod-
uct by developers, investors and
the high-end-brand hotel com-
panies.”
The recent growth spurt began
with the opening in early 2010 of
the 500-room Sheraton Puerto
Rico Hotel & Casino, adjacent
to the convention center in San
Juan.
That was followed later that
spring by the debut of the 157-
room W Retreat & Spa on Vi-eques and the 189-room St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort in Rio
Grande at the end of the year.
Set for rollout this November
is the 450-room Condado Vanderbilt in San Juan, followed by
the November 2012 opening of
At the recent Caribbean Week events in New York, sponsored by the Caribbean Tourism
Organization, the delegation from the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. included Gabriel Emanuelli, left,
director of sales and marketing for North America, and Narciso Moreno, regional sales director
for the Northeast U.S.
the 130-room Ritz-Carlton Re-
serve Dorado Beach Resort &
Spa on the grounds of the former
Dorado Beach property, which
was first developed by Laurence
Rockefeller in the 1950s.
CARIBBEAN
▼
Gaining an advantage at ASTA expo
By Johanna Jainchill
Qualicum Beach, Canada, also at-
tended the event in Istanbul last
tending this year’s expo will have
the same effect.
SAN JUAN — It was standing
room only at the two-hour presentation on how to sell Puerto
Rico during ASTA’s recent International Destination Expo.
“I didn’t know you could scuba
dive here,” she said. “I know so
much more about the island, and
that will help me target the right
clients.”
Travel agents in attendance
said being in Puerto Rico for
the event, held by represen-
tatives from the Puerto Rico
Tourism Co., gave them an
edge in being able to sell the
island destination.
“All I ever thought about
before was San Juan,” said
Lillie Golson of Takoma
Park, Md. “Now I see there
is so much more. As I was
sitting here, clients kept pop-
ping into my head that I can
send here.”
As far as who those cli-
ents are, representatives of
the Puerto Rico Tourism
Co. here said that it’s not
an island for people looking
for an all-inclusive resort.
“Puerto Rico doesn’t have
all-inclusive resorts because
we have dining options,”
said Gabriel Emanuelli, the
Puerto Rico Tourism Co.’s di-
rector of sales and marketing
for North America. “We want
you to go out and try them.”
He added that all-inclu-
sive resorts originally were
designed for destinations
that offered little for guests
to do or were unsafe.
“We want people to go out and
enjoy festivals and embrace what
we have to offer,” Emanuelli said.
“Interacting with the locals is part
of the whole experience.”
Puerto Rico Tourism Co. mem-
TW PHO TO B Y JOHANNA JAINCHILL
The fourth-floor infinity pool at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel
& Casino in San Juan offers a 57,000-square-foot deck, a
snack area, a kids’ wading pool and cabanas that can be rented
by the day.
That message of seeing
the destination firsthand is
what ASTA is trying to convey to agents regarding the value
of attending the annual expo,
which will be in Cuzco, Peru, in
2012. Carin Dunlop of Quali-
cum Beach Cruise and Travel in
year and said the immersion led
to increased sales.
