by Joe Pike
Last updated: 2:27 PM ET, Thu September 20, 2018
Ever since Hurricane Maria caused massive destruction in Puerto Rico one year ago today, politics has been overshadowing an otherwise uplifting story of resilience and redemption.
Making Maria's destructive path even worse last year was frustration over what many felt were slow recovery efforts by the mainland U.S., along with a war of words between President Donald Trump and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yuln Cruz.
According to a George Washington University study, Puerto Rico's death toll was around 3,000 people. Trump, however, disputed that number, claiming it's a ploy by Democrats to make him look bad.
But while a lot of negativity can be found on the political side, from a tourism standpoint, there's a more positive story to be told.
And the proof is in the numbers.
Check out the latest progress report from a getaway that went from looking down and out last September to a Caribbean island thriving with tourists one year later. All of the stats in this story were provided by representatives of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC).
Here's why travelers should be visiting Puerto Rico this fall and beyond.
Hotel Status
There are 132 lodging options open and accepting reservations for a total of 10,806 rooms, and 4,218 of these are currently being revamped, some of which have already opened for tourists.
The 132 number refers to endorsed hotels by PRTC. In terms of "short-term rentals," like AirBnb, HomeAway and Join a Join, these lodging services have generated $3.2 million in revenue ever since paying city tax was imposed on these services last August.
AirBnB, the most popular, has 7,500 rooms available in Puerto Rico. In fact, short-term rentals have seen a 38 percent increase in occupancy during the summer season, compared to last year's summer season.
By mid-2019, total room inventory will be back to about 15,000 rooms, which is pre-Maria numbers. The core luxury set of hotels will be fully operational as renovation processes come to a close. In the pipeline, Puerto Rico is adding 25 percent, or 3,800 new rooms, to its inventory with no specific timeline announced as of press time.
From April through June of this year, occupancy was up 3.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2017.
During the fall/winter season, Puerto Rico is expected to get an influx of new rooms as a result of the re-openings of the luxury portfolio, including Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, El San Juan Hotel, The St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort, Melia Coco Beach and Caribe Hilton.
Flights
Two weeks after Maria's destructive path, Puerto Rico had 20 daily flights and currently has on average 110 daily flights via 28 different airlines.
Flight capacity has recovered and is on the rise. The Luis Munoz Marin International Airport's capacity continues to trend positive, and seat capacity figures are comparable to pre-Maria levels and to those of fall of 2016.
Current monthly seat capacity surpasses the 420,000 figure and is on the rise reaching up to 500,000 seat capacity in July.
The forecast is on par to 2017 levels with the destination poised to make a full turnaround by the third or fourth quarters. June traffic was only down two percent, compared to June of 2017. This was the lowest traffic gap in the past nine months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and signals demand is responding to added capacity.
Delta Air Lines is boosting its service to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The carrier has added a fourth daily flight between Atlanta and San Juan this past June.
JetBlue remains committed to promoting tourism to Puerto Rico, and to serving the community by operating all routes that it operated prior to Hurricane Maria. Currently, the airline serves the destination with 48 daily flights to 13 cities in the United States and the Caribbean.
Caribbean Marketplace
Additionally, Puerto Rico hosted the 15th annual Caribbean Travel Marketplace this past January, "a testament to how quickly the destination and our facilities were back up and running," said Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico.
Cruise
All-in-all, for the next cruising season, Puerto Rico expects a record-breaking 1.7 million passengers, which equates to approximately $250 dollars in revenue, said Dean, who noted that more 540 cruise ship visits are scheduled to visit.
The cruise port in San Juan resumed operations just 2.5 weeks after Hurricane Maria.
And, the port in Ponce resumed cruise activity in December 2017.
What was once solely used for ships to bring relief supplies and goods has now hosted over 1.2 million leisure cruise passengers. All this amounts to an economic impact of $107 million.
In fact, more cruises than ever are arriving, now with 14 vessels, which is four more than last year, including Royal Caribbean's "Freedom of the Seas."
Norwegian Cruise Line will double its homeport presence in Puerto Rico beginning in the 2018-2019 winter season.
All-in-all, for the next cruising season 2018/2019, the PRTC expects a record-breaking 1.7 million passengers, which equates to roughly $250 million dollars in revenue.
Attractions/Entertainment
There are roughly 190 tourist attractions open, such as Old San Juan walking tours; Castillo San Felipe del Morro; Castillo San Cristobal; the Bacardi Tour; Cueva Ventana and Hacienda Campo Rico.
The famous El Yunque rainforest has some trails open but still hasn't fully recovered.
There's already plenty of culinary options with more than 4,000 restaurants open island-wide, including in Culebra and Vieques. From those 4,000 restaurants, 1,885 are located on the San Juan metro area.
For those looking for some additional entertainment, 13 golf courses and 16 casinos are now open.
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