Impact of Irma on the tourism industry in PR

Sitka Serial expat

953POSTS

8 years ago

We were just talking / speculating on how the damage done by Irma in the Caribbean will effect the tourist trade here in PR.聽 Many places like St. Martin the VIs and more, are off line for at least a couple seasons until they rebuild.聽

The list of destination competition in the Caribbean region has gotten shorter. More folks may give PR a try this season.聽 I expect we will see an advertising campain stressing PR is open for business.聽聽聽

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Gary ViP

1845POSTS

8 years ago

They should also tell potential visitors to bring flashlights and extra batteries for their phones.

While talking about this, my daughter works in hotel San Juan in Isla Verde and they had to send their guests away because the hotel has no generator. Daughter has been in her home since last Wednesday, no work, no pay...

ReyP ViP

5509POSTS

8 years ago

I read some headlines about a deal that supposedly was proposed to have cruise line and other package deals to include PR instead of the islands affected. I DID NOT read the article, so not sure if it is somebody throwing ideas or something being in the works.

Sitka Serial expat

953POSTS

8 years ago

yes, we have some temporary disruptions, but these will be fixed within a few weeks.聽聽Not to be too mercenary about it, but sometimes, one man's loss, is another man's gain.

PR may stand to benefit in terms of more tourist visits as a result of the destruction in other areas.

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Smates Member

11POSTS

8 years ago

Sitka, you are so right! This unfortunate turn of events can potentially be a windfall for PR. If PR was smart, they would be catering to the possibilities. If you ever have any interest in forming a PR investment group, I would be very interested.

1 member reacted to this post

Sitka Serial expat

953POSTS

8 years ago

Yup, the Governor has spoken!

Gary ViP

1845POSTS

8 years ago

Sitka wrote:
yes, we have some temporary disruptions, but these will be fixed within a few weeks.

Yeah, they may get most customers connected within a couple of weeks.
The problem though is that the grid is in such a bad shape that one little rainstorm will knock out power for tens of聽 thousands.
Even without any reason visible to the people there are power and water outages on a regular basis. I run my generator at least 20 times per year, the same goes for my cisterns/pump system.
Add to that the bad state of some (if not all) power plants. Before Irma neighborhoods in the metro area were shut off from electricity for two hours at the time because there's not enough capacity to deliver 24/7.
Mark my words, this is only going to get worse, not better (any time soon).
Truth is that the infrastructure on the island is a mess and the debt problems makes it worse.
I don't see any signs of improvement, on the contrary.

Call me negative, I don't mind. I've been here for 16 years full time and instead of improvement I've seen things go down steadily.

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