Pr tourism: Room Tax – Puerto Rico Tourism Company

Public Relations in Travel and Tourism: How to Do it Right

Travel and tourism public relations play a key role in helping your company remain visible in its field. Without proper PR, most people won’t even know who your brand is or what it does.

💡 Read Digital PR Explained: Best Strategies and Tools

Here are some ways you can create great PR yourself, even without hiring a professional agency.

What is the role of Public Relations in the travel and tourism industry?

People travel further and more frequently than ever before. So your brand has no choice but to try harder and harder to stand out in this competitive market.

Public Relations (PR) is one of the big things that affect tourism. It refers to getting information out there to the public about an entity, offering them something exciting and newsworthy.

Public relations covers traditional media relations, content creation, and social media initiatives. It’s a long-term strategy – a consistent, ongoing presence generates awareness and exposure and helps companies reach revenue goals.

Despite its importance, public relations is still viewed as a less important part of the marketing mix by many brands. 

There is nothing more false than that – PR, no matter the industry, should be treated seriously and with the right strategy.

It’s essential to portray your brand well to increase bookings, engage customers, and build a positive reputation that will impact your whole brand’s performance.

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What are the benefits of public relations in travel and tourism?

• Travel PR brings valuable media connections. The media regularly release, for example, lists of the top hotels to visit – use it to your advantage and make sure that your business is in it. Such positive publicity builds credibility and helps create a positive image.
• PR can be a useful promotional tool. Blog reviews and press releases are a great way to tell your company’s story in an engaging, opinionated tone. It doesn’t have to be too pushy to be successful. They can help you build credibility and exposure for the brand.
• PR streamlines the process of creating your brand’s awareness. By supporting charities or organizing special events, you can easily promote your brand and build awareness. Whether launching a new product or just running a promotional campaign, you can easily promote your business through these PR activities.
• PR provides a greater connection with the audience. All actions will not stay irrelevant for your target audience. It will pay off in the future.
• PR can help you communicate with the stakeholders. Public relations activities can help you maintain a good relationship with all the stakeholders, e.g., the investors or even engage your employees.

👉 PR Automation: Best Tools Which Do The Work For You

Tips and tricks for creating an effective PR campaign

Tourism and travel is a slightly different industry than others (but one where you have lots of room for action). The following tips are helpful in general, but you can also find some that work particularly well in your field.

To succeed in this hugely competitive market – take a look at some actions that can help you leverage your business objectives.

It may not surprise you at all – but pay close attention to your social media strategy. The Internet has become the most popular channel for travelers to book their trips – more than ever before travelers are online and mobile-savvy.

83% of US adults now prefer to book their travel online. From general data, reviews to exciting photos of resorts and hotels – every detail matters to encourage them to purchase.

Experiment with different strategies to see what works best for you. Be creative, gather your data, look at what others do, and develop a plan that suits your business model best.

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This is easy to say but often hard to actually do. We are all so used to our own social media platforms that it is tough to look outside of your comfort zone.  

It’s no use just posting on Facebook or Instagram – if you want actionable results, you have to take a closer look at each platform and see what opportunities they offer you. For instance, you can work on a theme-based design for your Instagram profile. It is important you change background in photo so your posted pictures match the overall theme of your profile.

2. Bet on local, personalized messages

You can’t be everywhere at the same time. So don’t try to market your company in every corner of the world – focus on specific areas and people who live there. 

The personal touch goes a long way, especially when trying to increase your brand awareness among travelers. Keep in mind that word-of-mouth marketing is quite popular in the tourism industry.

Understand your target audience, and customer needs clearly to know how to create a message that will convince them.

3. Partner with important travelers and influencers

Explore influencers and brands associated with the demographic you’re aiming for, and figure out how you can partner with and gain exposure through them.

There are many influencers explicitly connected with the travel industry (from nano influencers to top ones). Most of them work within Instagram but very often extend their activity to other platforms as well.

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Bringing in partners to help with your tourism campaign can be a great idea. But before you start, make sure you approach the right person who will bring in more traffic and increase brand awareness.

4. Focus on mobile devices

70% of travelers research trips on their smartphones. Even if you’re used to targeting desktop users, it makes sense to create a couple of versions of your site – one specifically designed for the small screen.

Having a mobile version of your website will keep you ahead of the competition and ensure that users can find everything they may need on the go.

5. Create video content

Videos are an excellent way to catch consumers’ attention and help them picture what it would be like to vacation on the beach, ski in fresh powder, or cruise among Norwegian fiords.

All PR activities can be strengthened by engaging, creative content. Create a video using the best quality equipment you have available. It doesn’t need to be professional-level editing or animation, but it does need to look good. 

The video’s production value is a massive factor in terms of the return on investment it will generate for you, simply because viewers will be far more likely to engage with your work if it looks appealing.

6. Participate in and organize events

Public relations events are your chance to show off your company or offers and services to the general public. Organizing and participating in PR events allows you to create a positive image of your company and highlight its social benefits.

Take part in events organized by third parties, such as fairs and exhibitions, to gain significant opportunities to reach customers directly and gain lasting business relationships. Promoting your brand during major travel events is a great way to call attention to your company. You can also research virtual events for this purpose.

7. Look to the future of VR technology

The development of VR technology can change the world of tourism (and already does).

As a growing number of enterprises start using VR as a sales tool, such experience has become an important part of marketing strategies used by businesses that deal with the travel and tourism industry – from hotels to airlines companies. 

Companies must offer their customers tailored services and products – from developing a custom virtual reality app for mobile devices to unique virtual tours.

The technology can, for example, be used to present hotel interiors in detail or to show what tourists can expect at a particular place on the spot.

It’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase 360-degree imagery of a destination with high resolution, allowing the user to imagine themselves at the travel destination.

8. Interact with prospects and customers

PR is not only about events, taking care of the overall image of your company, etc. You can’t forget about one of the most critical factors – your audience. It’s not enough to give them engaging content and experience.

To take care of your positive online image, you have to interact with your audience. Respond to the reviews (both positive and negative), and remember that you should answer all the questions your prospects have.

Thus, you can create a positive customer experience and retain loyal clients.

We know that it’s hard to track all the mentions and react as quickly as possible. However, consider testing out a social monitoring tool if it’s too much for you and you want to make your work easier.

It’s a solution that will notify you as soon as somebody mentions your brand and automatically detect the mentions’ sentiment. It also provides ready-made reports, full of valuable data that you can generate in a matter of a minute.

Such real-time tracking helps you to manage your online presence and the whole PR campaign more effectively.

10. Measure the results of your efforts

What happens if you’re running a PR campaign for your travel company and all of a sudden, you notice that the conversion rate has gone down? Or that there was no improvement whatsoever?

Before making any changes, it’s important to measure the results of your efforts. Otherwise, you can lose a lot of money unnecessarily.

Having metrics in place is the key to understanding if you’re doing a good job, and it will tell you what needs to be done. 

You should set up measurements to track your efforts. It can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet and adding columns such as:

• Type of PR (for example, press release, blog article)
• Metrics (e.g. sales leads)
• Result (was there any improvement?)

You can then dig into deeper data that will help you pinpoint the action items that need fixing. Ultimately, it enables you to understand whether or not your PR campaign is successful and if there are any areas for improvement.

💡 PR Measurement: What Is the Right Way to Prove PR Effectiveness?

Final thoughts 

Public relations in the travel and tourism industry is not just about adding hype to your product, getting online visibility, and so on. Instead, PR helps provide value that goes beyond just the promotion of your company or business.

In the travel industry, the benefits of PR are huge. It helps companies gain more market penetration, create awareness about their business, build loyalty with existing customers and potential prospects, and raise the conversion rate.

If you want to set up a successful PR campaign, then consider all the tips that we mentioned here. Good luck!

Puerto Rico’s Recovery Offers These Lessons for Global Tourism

Puerto Rico tourism is as hot as a breezeless late-morning in June on the island, but it also faces long-term challenges that could chill the narrative.

With much of the work divided between the private sector-led Discover Puerto Rico and the decades-old, government-run Puerto Rico Tourism Company, Puerto Rico tourism eclipsed pre-pandemic marks in 2021 on airport arrivals, non-resident visitor spending, lodging taxes generated, and hotel revenue per available room, which was 124 percent higher than the U.S. average that year. 

Figures from the first four months of 2022, including hotel average daily rates of $305, which amounted to a 35 percent year-over-year increase, showed nothing if not acceleration in the island’s tourism metrics.

“In 2021, once the restrictions were relaxed, it was off to the races,” Brad Dean, the CEO of Discover Puerto Rico, told Skift. 

All of that came despite a tumultuous last half-dozen years.

In 2016, the U.S. Congress appointed a financial oversight board for Puerto Rico that still dictates much of the island’s finances, and cut services, including teachers’ pensions several years later. A Zika outbreak took hold in 2016, as well. Hurricanes Maria and Irma devastated the island in 2017, and frequent blackouts are a nagging reminder to this day that Puerto Rico still hasn’t fully recovered. Street protests led to the ouster of the governor in 2019, and three weeks of earthquakes starting in early January 2020 rattled the island’s already fragile infrastructure.

And, then came the pandemic.

Dean said Discover Puerto Rico retooled during the first months of the pandemic because he knew travel would be back — eventually.  “We did get to a point where we just didn’t have enough work for everybody, but for the most part, we kept our team intact,” he said. “We wanted to keep the brand top of mind. So 2020 really ended up just being a year where we pushed the pause button on the progress that was already under way.”

The progress and setbacks in Puerto Rico are a useful guide for other destinations struggling to make their way back from the depths of the pandemic, shining a light on how to traverse a travel industry now forced to stay nimble while meeting travelers’ new expectations.

Meanwhile, while not a Puerto Rico-specific issue, there are early signs that U.S. consumers — and perhaps others — are cutting back on travel and dining as inflation rages.

You Can’t Separate Tourism From Puerto Rico’s Colonial Status

With digital nomads wandering the earth and if barriers have indeed broken down between travel and living, as articulated by Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Skift’s Rafat Ali, among others, then it is fair to say the island’s tourism must coexist with the tax breaks that American mainlanders can wrangle in Puerto Rico that are unavailable to Puerto Ricans, the sentiment that Airbnb is dominating what otherwise might be reasonably priced rental housing for locals, unchecked development in environmentally sensitive locations, and the fact that the island’s 78 municipalities might be divided between tourism haves and have-nots.

Then throw into the mix the fact that the island is officially a U.S. territory, but actually is a colony of the U. S. where Puerto Rican residents, who are U.S. citizens and have served in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, can’t vote for U.S. president. The U.S. grabbed Puerto Rico after invading the island in 1898 at the tail end of the Spanish-American war.

Because of the Jones Act, the island can’t import food and goods from U.S. ports unless it comes in a ship built in the U.S. and is mainly staffed by Americans. Since most of Puerto Rico’s imports are from U.S. ports, this Jones Act requirement drives up prices.

Crystal Díaz, who hosted the Skift team last Wednesday night at the Jajome Terrace farm-to-table restaurant in Cayey during a company retreat, told us: More than 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s food is imported despite hundreds of thousands of acres of potential farmland laying fallow.

Our farm-to-table host tonight in Cayey, PR, Crystal Diaz, telling us that economics, & lack of a food policy means 85 percent of island 🇵🇷food imported w/ 600,000 abundant acres of rich farmland. % in 1940s? 60 % ⁦@skift⁩ Retreat pic.twitter.com/nB0SRL5YpK

— Tom Lowry (@lowrytom) June 14, 2022

Puerto Rico’s tourism bodies don’t have the mandate or power to fix all of the island’s structural and decades-old issues, but some of them fall within their portfolios. The Puerto Rico Tourism Company, for example, shares some of the destination management responsibility with government agencies.

The Good and the Bad of Puerto Rico Tourism

Hector Pesquera is a retired family physician who splits his time between San Juan and Puerto Rico’s Culebra island, where his son runs a guest house, Hostal Casa Culebra. He said the majority of tourism is good, and it’s especially important in Culebra for the water taxis, restaurants, and bed-and-breakfasts. 

In a separate interview, his son Sergio Pesquera, said the biggest problem with Culebra tourism is it is very difficult to make a ferry reservation to get there. The ferry websites often shows tickets are sold out, “and if you call no will answer,” he said, adding that tourists aren’t allowed to bring their cars like they were before the pandemic.

Hector Pesquera said Airbnb has had a positive impact on Culebra.

However, tourism has a negative impact when travelers don’t safeguard the island’s natural resources, Hector Pesquera said. A minority “comes just to mess things around,” he added.

Hector Pesquera said when people from U.S. states move to Puerto Rico to extract certain tax exemptions and “buy everything they can,” that’s not good for the island.

 A Centro de Periodismo Investigativo investigation — it’s the same group that uncovered the homophobic chats that led to the 2019 ouster of Governor Ricardo Rosselló — found last year that Act 22 tax incentives for non-Puerto Rican investors that were geared to generate job growth and other benefits for the local economy “never materialized.”

“From being an instrument to attract millionaires, and foreign investment, Act 22 went on to become a haven for cryptocurrency fans, YouTube personalities and consultants,” the story said.

Puerto Rico Tourism Gets a New Structure

How did Puerto Rico tourism get to this juncture?

In 2017, six months before Hurricane Maria, the Puerto Rican government revamped its tourism board structure. It created privately led Discover Puerto Rico to assume and supplement some of the work of the decades-old, government-run Puerto Rico Tourism Company. The latter body now handles tourism marketing within Puerto Rico, is in charge of destination management, and oversees much of the island’s relationships with, and financial incentives for, airlines and cruise lines.

Discover Puerto Rico took over marketing Puerto Rico tourism outside the island and is in charge of meetings and conferences.

One of the ideas behind the change was to avoid the lack of strategy consistency and the constant revolving door among Puerto Rico’s tourism leadership because when tourism was solely government-run that meant there was executive turnover with each new occupant in La Fortaleza, the governor’s official residence. 

Puerto Rico hasn’t reelected a governor since the 1990s so every few years the leadership of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, which previously headed all of the island’s tourism marketing, got overturned, just as it did in 2021 when Carlos Mercado Santiago replaced Carla Campos in the top spot with the election of a Governor Pedro Pierluisi.

The inconsistency over the years led to a Puerto Rico tourism identity crisis. Just what was Puerto Rico’s tourism identity and what was the strategy if the branding was ever-changing?

Puerto Rico tourism used the following marketing messages over the years. Discover Puerto Rico.

Consider the Puerto Rico Tourism Company’s marketing slogans over the years. They ranged from Escape The Cold to Summer Is Easy and The Continent of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico USA. Wait, is Puerto Rico a continent or part of the USA? Add to the mix Fall in Love, The Island of Enchantment, Live Your 5 Star Vacation, and Explore Beyond the Shore.  

Unlike those mixed messages, Dean of Discover Puerto Rico hopes its recently launched Live Boricua marketing campaign will have staying power.

The campaign emphasizes not just Puerto Rico’s beaches and places to visit, but the faces of the Puerto Rican people in all of their diversity, he said. Puerto Ricans call themselves Boricuas; the name comes from the Tainos, Puerto Rico’s native inhabits, who called the island Borinquén. Puerto Ricans are a multicolored mash with Taino, Spanish, and African roots.

Dean said Discover Puerto Rico started planning the campaign under the premise that it had to distinguish Puerto Rico from its Caribbean and U.S. mainland competitors because most islands have plenty of beautiful beaches, and so do other destinations. He said the campaign emphasized experiences for active-minded travelers, as well as Puerto Rico’s rich history and culture, as well as destinations beyond the San Juan metro and eastern corridor.

Some of the marketing urges visits to Ponce in the south and the bioluminescent bay in Lajas a little further to the west. Both take at least two hours by car from San Juan. The Toro Verde adventure park in the central portion of the island is another point of interest.

The following chart from Tourism Analytics shows Puerto Rico ranking second behind the U. S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean in terms of 2021 non-resident stopovers as a percentage of 2019’s numbers at 103.2 percent. The Puerto Rico figures tallied non-resident hotel registrations, but much of Puerto Rico’s tourism comeback involved non-hotel short-term rentals.

Tourism Analytics

Arrivals into San Juan’s international airport from January to April 2022 exceeded 1.6 million, a 6.3 percent increase compared with the previous record, according to Aerostar Airport Holdings, which runs the airport.

While the long-term success of the Live Boricua campaign, which launched on digital channels earlier this month in the UK, Germany, Spain, Canada, and Colombia, remains to be seen, Dean thinks with it Puerto Rico tourism has found an identity to build on.

“If you think about it, I can’t say that we thought of Live Boricua four years ago, but it’s become a natural extension into that brand definition, where now we’re emphasizing not only the unique cultural heritage of the island and the unique experiences, but also the uniqueness of the people,” Dean said.

Tourism’s at Times Heavy Footprint

Amelia Barbosa works as a bartender in a beachside bar/restaurant in Rincón, Puerto Rico, on the island’s northern west coast about 90 miles from the San Juan metro area. Asked about the benefits of tourism, Barbosa said, “it’s complicated.”

Some tourists in the San Juan area behave badly, Barbosa said, and the ones who venture out of the metro area to the west coast to towns such as Rincon, Aguadilla and Cabo Rojo, don’t tend to stay very long. 

“The Puerto Ricans are literally selling everything,” Barbosa said, referring to real estate and the development of Airbnbs. She said it is very difficult for Puerto Ricans to afford to buy a house. 

“Americans are benefitting from everything,” Barbosa said, referring to residents of the 50 states as opposed to Puerto Ricans, who are likewise U.S. citizens. “It is very difficult to deal with that. It’s very bad.”

Felix Salas, who was born in Puerto Rico and lived here for more than 30 years, overheard the conversation and invited me to join him at the Rincon bar.

He agrees with Puerto Ricans who are angered by developers who sometimes get carte blanche to build in environmentally sensitive areas, without much government intervention.

“That is true to a certain extent,” said Salas, who works as a surveyor as it relates to land use management for a U.S. government agency in Massachusetts. “Not 100 percent, but it’s something that’s happened for a very long time. Many people either built illegally or the government agencies in charge turned a blind eye and that’s well-known.” 

Salas said a movement is under way among Puerto Ricans to push the government to safeguard the island’s natural resources.

For example, one Puerto Rican independence activist, @chimeraelf, recently pointed to the problem, tweeting a series of photos depicting Airbnb properties built on beaches, allegedly impeding legally guaranteed public access to the surf and sands, and some of the homes tread on environmentally sensitive beach turf. 

Villa Shacks in Isabela hosted by Mark — 🤔 sure looks like it’s encroaching on public beach zone… that’s just 2 listings out of 1000s! pic. twitter.com/PDM4cFeg2B

— boricuabot #AbolishLaJunta (@chimeraelf) June 7, 2022

Mark tries to play it cool, his theft of public beach “The beach is literally your backyard. Even though all of the beaches are public, this feels like a very private spot.” pic.twitter.com/qEjeRMr215

— boricuabot #AbolishLaJunta (@chimeraelf) June 7, 2022

Airbnb played an outsized role in Puerto Rico’s tourism recovery. In the years after Hurricane Maria, when many of the island’s hotels were shuttered, Airbnb properties filled much of the gap and more. In the first four months of 2022, Puerto Rico’s hotel revenue jumped 78 percent year over year, and short-term rental revenue climbed 55 percent, according to STR and AirDNA, respectively. The average daily rate for hotels was $305, a 35 percent increase, and was much higher than the U.S. average.

There is some resentment on the island against Airbnb, especially when locals search for places to live among rising rents, and a chunk of housing is reserved for Airbnb use.

While some of that Airbnb use in Puerto Rico can be tied to non-Puerto Rico real estate speculators coming to the island for tax breaks and investment gains, Governor Pierluisi said recently that most Airbnb owners on the island are Puerto Ricans. His statement came as part of his proposal to raise the accommodation tax on short-term rentals 1 percentage point to 8 percent while a mayor’s group wants to raise it to 10 percent. Hotels without a casino pay 10 percent, and those with gambling facilities get charged 11 percent.

While the proliferation of Airbnbs is an issue, there is a movement on the island to beat back allegedly illegal construction.

On the west coast In Rincon, a months-long protest on Playa Almendros that had demonstrators lay down in front of construction equipment on the move, beat back a condo’s attempt to construct a swimming pool perilously close to the shore line and in an area where turtles nest.

Protests signs to stop a condo’s swimming pool construction on a Rincon, Puerto Rico beach perilously close to the shore line. Dennis Schaal

A cousin of Governor Pierluisi was a resident of the condo that was trying to build the swimming pool.

Elsewhere in Rincon, an assortment of community groups and local businesses built a hiking trail along the beach near the marina underneath some palm trees to stave off a threatened hotel development. Signs along the trail and through the town read, Salva Tres Palmas, No Destruyas Rincón (Save Tres Palmas, Don’t Destroy Rincón). 

A hiking trail built by community groups near the marina and a beach in Rincon, Puerto Rico geared to stave off hotel construction. Dennis Schaal

Destination management, in terms of developers seeking financial incentives for large projects such as hotels, would be the responsibility of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. Its CEO didn’t respond to an interview request.

Responsibility for destination management also falls to the Department of Natural Resources and local municipalities in terms of permits and enforcement.

Felix Salas, the Puerto Rico-born surveyor, is familiar with encroachment issues where people were trying to illegally acquire federal land on Culebra, one of the two bigger islands along with Vieques that are part of Puerto Rico.

“So they’re in the maritime terrestrial zone where you’re not supposed to do anything, really,” Salas said. “And that’s a public domain. It was a pretty straightforward case, but we realized that Puerto Rico needs a lot more attention from our headquarters and from all federal agencies.”

Tomás Ramírez, Discover Puerto Rico board vice chairman who heads the Asociación de Paradores y Pequeñas Hospederías Puertorriqueñas (the Association of Paradores and Small Inns) in Cabo Rojo on the island’s southwest coast, acknowledged there has been a problem “with some people taking ownership of the beaches. We have had some large developers purchasing properties near the beach and closing access.”

Ramírez, who also owns the Combate Beach Resort in Cabo Rojo, said there are some Airbnbs in places they should not be. “However, it is not a large problem yet,” he claimed.

The Puerto Rico Tourism Company, the natural resources agencies and local officials weren’t doing adequate jobs in safeguarding the island’s development. He contended things are improving, though.

“It was a matter of execution and enforcement,” Ramírez said. “It is happening.” 

Community Engagement and Dispersing the Island’s Visits

Skift Editor-at-Large Lebawit Lily Girma has written several articles about how Panama tourism, and tourism officials in Hawaii, are in the forefront of those seeking to connect local communities to tourism strategy.

Ramírez said engagement with local communities is happening “little by little” in Puerto Rico. Discover Puerto Rico has a local advisory committee that includes the presidents of the Chambers of Commerce of the south and west regions, as well as the director of the Universidad Ana G Méndez Kingbird Innovation Center, and the owner of LT Travel Agency, for example.

He said Discover Puerto Rico has met with legislators, mayors and community groups in municipalities such as Cabo Rojo, Ponce, Aguadilla, and Lajas, for instance.

Some raised concerns about the quantity of tourism — they want more — and some of the mayors have favorite tourism projects, Ramírez said. Municipal officials are sometimes also angry about visitors behaving badly. 

Ramírez said Discover Puerto Rico is “using strategies to filter such behaviors.”

He pointed proudly to the fact that around 90 percent of Puerto Rico’s off-island marketing used to be directed toward visiting the San Juan metro area or beach vacations, and that now 30-40 percent of promotions go beyond the corridor from Dorado to Fajardo.

Castillo Serralles in Ponce. Discover Puerto Rico

The challenge is to get tourists out of the San Juan area to visit places like Castillo Serralles in Ponce in the south or the Toro Verde adventure park in the central portion of the island. 

Toro Verde zipline. Discover Puerto Rico

“So that dispersion, I think to me, is part of the story,” Dean said. “It’s not only more visitors, it’s spreading them out, which, of course, you can look at that in different ways. One, that’s hopefully helping prevent overtourism. The other side, to me, is it’s bringing everybody to the party. Whereas, historically, tourism had been concentrated in certain areas.”

Another side of the coin — yes, Puerto Rico uses U.S. currency — is that the island’s visitors come primarily from the U.S. east coast, namely from New York to Florida.

Discover Puerto Rico hopes to attract more guests from the U.S. Midwest, and eventually the U.S. west coast. International arrivals have been largely shut down until recently, but the destination management organization began marketing abroad a couple of weeks ago.

As part of that strategy to attract visitors from the U.S. mainland beyond the east coast, Dean said Discover Puerto Rico is using different versions of the Live Boricua campaign for varied audiences. 

“There are some markets that know us fairly well, like New York and Florida,” Dean said. “They immediately resonate with Live Boricua. They’re familiar with us and they want that deep intrinsic connection, an emotional connection. They’re craving that. Then there’s other markets like my friends in Indianapolis or Peoria, Illinois. They want it too, but they don’t know us well enough yet. This is the first date. They want to get to know us a little better. They probably need to see some beaches and some of the traditional shots.” 

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs But What Kind?

As part of its tourism recovery, Puerto Rico is now attracting meetings and conventions at twice the pact of pre-pandemic levels. Some $400 million worth of meetings and conventions is already booked, according to Discover Puerto Rico, including annual gatherings this year or in 2023 for the U.S. Travel Association, American Society of Travel Advisors, the National Association of Travel Journalists, and the Caribbean Hotel Tourism Association. 

Although jobs in leisure and hospitality reached a record 86,000 through April 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there still is a labor shortage.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

“And maybe the most important stat of all, to me this is probably the one that’s the most surprising, as of today, we have more people employed in leisure and hospitality than ever in the history of the island, which is pretty interesting, because if you talk to local businesses, they’ll tell you they don’t have enough people,” Dean said.

For Puerto Rico born and raised Felix Salas, it all depends on the types of jobs and the economy that the Puerto Rico government, flush with mismanagement and corruption, is creating.

“So I think tourism for an island, it should be one of the top economic methods of having a healthy economy, as long as it’s done right,” Salas said. “As long as the people in Puerto Rico are working for good paying jobs and get fair incentives for what they do, I think it’s absolutely fine.”

But Salas thinks there are downsides to Puerto Rico tilting too heavily toward a services economy. He’s like to see the government and private business help to develop the island’s agriculture potential, for example.

He doesn’t want Puerto Rico tourism to eventually resemble the Dominican Republic where all-inclusive resorts with low-paying jobs are common.

“Because you’re going to have people making little money just to serve people who come here who have the money,” Salas said. “So you do want to diversify the economy a little bit more. I think that is the way to the future. I think it should be something that we should work hard on. I feel like that would make it a bit more independent.”

Dean of Discover Puerto Rico probably wouldn’t disagree. 

“There are massive changes in the workplace and the workforce, and major infrastructure needs, which in many instances our country has not addressed, at least not to the level we need,” Dean said. “These are major challenges that the best marketing plan and sales team in the industry can’t overcome.”

In that regard, Dean argues that the old destination marketing organization model of placing ads and selling inventory is an anachronism. 

“I think it’s a challenge at the same time for us to step up and recognize that we have a role in the economic strength and prosperity of our communities,” he said. “But that means recognizing that we’ve got to be at the table, helping solve issues that, while they may not appear as the top priority for us, they’re important to the community. If you can’t be at the table helping solve your community’s problem, then A, you’re not a part of the team, and B, it’s going to impede your ability to drive progress in your community.”

Lessons From Puerto Rico Tourism

Among the lessons one can glean from Puerto Rico tourism:

• Discover Puerto Rico, mostly out of necessity because of the tourism industry’s weak financial position at the time, tossed out the usual membership funding model that sees many tourism boards dominated by the narrow interests of hotels, for example. Airbnb is a big part of Puerto Rico’s tourism comeback, and the destination management organization may have been hampered had the hotel industry been the only party calling the shots. Puerto Rico offers attractions and restaurants free directory listings, but their impact isn’t gargantuan. 
• Yes, it’s great to see when tourism board leaderships aren’t solely made up of political appointees here today and gone on Wednesday to bring a degree of consistency to strategy. But will private businesses adequately safeguard the public interest?
• If tourism boards don’t make engagement with local communities a big priority, they too can get swept away in a backlash as fast as a governor who reveals his true character with associates in a seemingly private chat.
• In this current era, tourism, living and social issues are one big splotch of paint, and each will color the other, and can’t be separated.
• Hire the best and the brightest, and employees who value diversity and inclusion, whether for content creation or supplier relations. Everyone will not always get along in any collection of human beings, but doling out the best jobs to an exec’s cousin or nephew won’t cut it when the public measures your every move.
• Let your decisions be research driven or at least research influenced as a core practice. If your research tells you your brand positioning isn’t much different than for any other Caribbean island or country in Southeast Asia, then it’s time to change your message and perceptions — based on your research.  
• Don’t crawl into a bunker during the next crisis — and there will inevitably, yes guaranteed, there will be one. Use the time to retool and stay in the consideration set, circumstances permitting. 
• Trust your instincts but consult with others about ever-changing consumer behavior or patterns. Otherwise you will be left behind as fast as a wind gust from a Cayey mountaintop overtakes you. 
• After all, complacency is death. 

Editor’s Note: The author, Skift founding editor Dennis Schaal, has lived in Puerto Rico since November 2020.

Disclosure: Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali serves on board of advisors for Discover Puerto Rico.

Correction: The Jones Act only pertains to goods that Puerto Rico imports from U.S. ports, and we incorrectly reported that it covers all global imports.

The need for a PR strategy, the crisis of the tourism industry and the lessons of survival from Taiwan – Marketing on vc.

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And a little more about content marketing and customer experience.

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Communication trends: a view from abroad, 05/26/2020

Digest prepared by iMARS Communications.

PR strategy is now more important than ever

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken international trade on a scale we never knew existed. By all accounts, the economic impact of this crisis will not disappear anytime soon, and the media landscape has changed dramatically. Newspaper headlines around the world are dominated by coverage of the current COVID-19 situation.

Getting your message across to the media is key to brand development and is, of course, critical to attracting investment, customers and talented employees. The most successful brands will be those that are recognized by everyone in their industry – this is where PR is crucial.

Sean Pattwell

,

Founder and CEO CW8 Communications (Ireland)

nine0002 1. Strategy

All companies should spend this time developing their PR strategy. While this may seem like an unconventional practice during a crisis, developing a comprehensive PR strategy will allow you to stay viable and attract new business during and after a crisis.

2. Identify relevant media

Find journalists who write about your industry or companies similar to yours. This will broaden your business horizon and help you identify what other companies’ stories are, what readers are interested in, what journalists are interested in, and what constitutes a good story. nine0003

3. Get in touch

Once you’ve identified the best journalists for you and your business, contact them. Journalists are by nature open and interested in intriguing stories. Tell them yours.

4. Become a thought leader

Write an article or blog, show it to colleagues or consultants, and post it on LinkedIn, or better yet, send it to the newsroom. By positioning yourself as a thought leader, you can stand out, develop your personal brand, and capture the attention of your audience. nine0003

5. Plan for the future

Trying to get media coverage without the expertise of a PR agency can be challenging, but you can lay some important foundations without consulting. Decide how you will build your brand when things return to normal. This crisis will pass. We have not faced such difficult challenges, but the international business community will work together to weather this storm.

How the travel industry can overcome the global PR crisis

It is undeniable that the entire world is feeling the impact of COVID-19, but few companies are under pressure as much as those in the travel and hospitality industry. The number of both domestic and international travel has dropped significantly, and the lockdown has forced everyone to lock themselves in their homes. For PR professionals facing a global crisis for the first time, there are three key things to keep in mind.

Ronn Torossyan,

Founder and CEO of 5W Public Relations (USA)

1. Focus on your brand value

Instead of revolving around your products and services, your stories should focus on how your company is helping in a given situation. The tourism industry appears to have outperformed all expectations, with hotels opening their doors to healthcare workers battling COVID-19 outbreaks, while several airlines are now using their planes to carry medical supplies. While altruism of this magnitude is not possible for all companies, it is important that brands consider realistic actions they could take to address the problem society is facing. nine0003

2. Strive for Honesty, Not Perfection

Today, customers expect honesty from brands they trust, yet few consumers expect perfection at a time like this. The best way to do this is through your CEO’s social media posts. For example, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson released an emotional video message last month detailing the company’s current losses and plans for the future. nine0003

3. Speak, Don’t Sell

The safety of employees and the community should be a top priority for every brand. A recent study found that consumers are closely monitoring how brands are responding to the COVID-19 crisis, with 66% of respondents agreeing that a brand’s behavior now will have a huge impact on their loyalty going forward. The good news for marketers is that times of crisis can be a great opportunity to build trust. nine0003

What can we learn from Taiwan?

Experts and journalists rightly attribute the “gold star” to Taiwan and its ability to cope, adapt and survive in difficult conditions. Taiwanese brands have shown similar resilience as they struggle with cost cuts, falling consumer confidence and changing shopper behavior.

As more people stay at home, Taiwanese brands have begun exploring new digital opportunities to adapt and respond, and the results show that they will be able to weather this economic storm. nine0003

Sega Cheng

,

CEO and co-founder of iKala (Taiwan)

First Mover Benefits

Brands that pioneered their digital transformation and established online sales channels early have proven to be more resilient to the pandemic. For example, Taiwanese department store Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, which previously launched an online shopping app, rapidly scaled up its e-commerce platform, partnered with home delivery services, and integrated its customer data offline. nine0003

Collaboration is key

Brands should also look to each other for support. Instead of dealing with the crisis alone, many Taiwanese companies are partnering with each other to accelerate their digital transformation efforts. That’s exactly what Taiwan’s FamilyMart did when the supermarket chain partnered with Foodpanda to provide delivery services from its outlets.

Use machine learning

COVID-19 has changed people’s habits and consumption patterns. In response, companies are cutting their media spending and changing strategies. An accurate understanding of your customers can be essential. One way to do this is through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technical proposals quickly process massive, complex datasets and adjust in real time, allowing teams to better understand their customers and respond to behavioral changes. nine0003

Content Marketing Best Practice

When the world is turned upside down, how do you, as a marketer, create valuable content for your brand? Like our friends who specialize in PR and social strategy, we’ve compiled a list of time-tested practices that serve as useful reminders for developing content strategies.

Matthew Briggs

,

Vice President PAN Communications (USA)

nine0025

Don’t forget the practicality of your content

A specific brand and industry response, social distancing guidelines, or daily infection counts, each presents the information they can. There are currently no rulebooks, so use this as an opportunity to provide content that can be applied in practice.

Align your messaging with the right channels

Be neutral in your communications. The current situation has created a need for extreme sensitivity. Marketers should be aware that different employees may react differently to new brand policies. Be careful when advising your teams to consider all possible options. nine0003

Save “excessive communication” for later

You can’t be too active in your communications if you don’t have outstanding experts among you. Since everyone is looking for opportunities to improve performance, it’s important for you to include experts in your marketing team.

Let data drive your content efforts

Filtering information and finding a compelling story is an important part of your job right now, but you can’t do that if you remain in the dark. Collaborate with your team to put the pieces of the puzzle together so you can tell the best story possible. nine0003

Humanize your content

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and respect their point of view. Be as neutral as possible, especially in your content.

Know when and how to promote your content

Your marketing team produces some truly impressive content, but they want to make sure their efforts see the light of day. But these days, content promotion may not go so smoothly.

Eliminate the phrases “unprecedented times” and “uncertain times” from your vocabulary

These two phrases, while true, are overused by everyone. We all know that the situation is dynamic and constantly changing.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

You never know how things might change, and that’s okay. As a marketer, don’t let this discourage you. Just because the situation is changing does not mean that your plans will not be relevant in the future.

Good customer experience? Are you asking a man or a woman? nine0003

Today, customer experience has come to define a brand’s reputation. New research from Genesys reveals that men and women have different expectations for good customer support and communication methods. For example, men are willing to pay more to get the kind of service they want.

35% of men and 25% of women say they make a purchase decision based solely on its reputation for customer service. When communicating with customer support centers, both men and women equally appreciate the timeliness of response and the qualifications of the staff. nine0003

11% of women and 20% of men say they are “often” frustrated with customer support services. Men are also more likely to complain to a competitor after bad service, compared to 5% of women.

While our survey results shed light on differences in the way men and women think about customer service, they also point to a broader trend: the expectation of “as you wish” service. Fortunately, thanks to artificial intelligence and predictive power, companies can deliver the more personalized experience that consumers today expect. nine0003

Janelle Dicken

,

SVP Product Marketing Genesys (USA)

Tourism Public Relations (PR)

Tourism Public Relations is a planned, continuous effort aimed at creating and maintaining friendly relations and mutual understanding between travel companies and their public: “company public” means employees, partners and consumers. They solve various problems: provide the company’s management with information about public opinion and assist it in developing response measures: ensure the activities of management in the public interest, keep it in a state of readiness for various changes by predicting trends in advance; use research and open communication as the main means of action. nine0207 The objective of Tourism Public Relations (PR) is to establish two-way communication to identify common perceptions or common interests and achieve mutual understanding based on truth, knowledge and full awareness of tourism products.
The scope of such interactions, aimed at developing strong public relations, can be very diverse depending on the size and nature of the parties, but the philosophy, strategy and methods remain very similar, no matter what the goal is, for example, a course towards international understanding or improved relations between the company and consumers of its tourism products, travel agents and employees. nine0207 Tourism PR professionals use modern communication and persuasion techniques to build bridges and build rapport.
Understanding is facilitated by reputation, experience and cultural factors. An important component of most public relations programs in the tourism sector to gain a reliable reputation is the creation of an atmosphere of trust and the implementation of a unified strategy.

Public relations in the field of tourism includes the following main areas:
1. Public opinion. nine0207 2. Public relations.
3. Government affairs.
4. Community life.
5. Industrial relations.
6. Financial relations.
7. International relations.
8. Consumer relations.
9. Research and statistics.
10. Mass media (media).
Public relations play an important role in the tourism industry. And while the theory and philosophy of public relations in tourism is equally applicable to each of them, some details and priorities vary depending on the direction. nine0003

Public relations (PR) in the field of tourism, consists of four different but related parts:
1. Analysis, research and problem statement.
2. Development of the program and budget.
3. Communication and implementation of the program.
4. Study of the results, their evaluation and possible improvements.

The concept of public relations (PR) in tourism includes:
1. Anything that can improve mutual understanding between travel companies and those with whom this travel company comes into contact both inside and outside it. nine0207 2. Recommendations for creating a “public face” of a travel company.
3. Activities aimed at identifying and eliminating rumors or other sources of misunderstanding.
4. Activities aimed at expanding the sphere of influence of the travel company by means of appropriate propaganda, advertising of the tourism product, exhibitions, video and film screenings.
5. Any action aimed at improving contacts between people or travel companies.

At the same time, public relations (PR) in the field of tourism is not:
1. A barrier between the truth and the public.
2. Propaganda, seeking to impose something, regardless of the truth, ethical standards and public interests.
3. Advocacy aimed solely at increasing sales, although tourism public relations are important for sales and marketing programs.
4. A set of tricks and tricks. They are sometimes used to attract attention, but when used frequently and in isolation, they are completely useless.
5. Free travel advertising. nine0207 6. Simple press work, although press work is a very important part of most travel PR programs.

Public relations in the field of tourism attaches great importance to the need for bilateral relations. Lack of communication breeds many cases of misunderstanding, and therefore improving communication methods, developing new ways to create a two-way flow of information and understanding is the main task of any public relations program in the tourism industry. This is very difficult due to the extreme complexity of the mechanism of communication, even if there is a strong desire to establish it. nine0207 It is possible to promptly and regularly inform employees and the public using the methods of public relations in the field of tourism.
In a medium or large travel company, there is a system for disseminating information from senior management to employees. The success of travel companies depends on how quickly, accurately and efficiently this system operates. However, studies have revealed a number of serious shortcomings in this most important link in the organization of management.
It turned out that from his deputy, the leader can expect to understand no more than 60% of the information that he tries to convey to him on any important but complex issue. The subordinate of the deputy will also understand no more than 60% of what his boss tried to explain to him, and so on – to the last link in the chain of command. Thus, if the leadership consists of five levels, the most junior of the leaders will understand only 13% of the original order. This applies to oral communication. When using written documents, the result can be even worse. Comprehension of a written directive may be as low as 15% at each level. nine0207 When using several methods of communication, the result was better than when simply adding the degree of understanding of the individual methods of promotion. This confirms the truth known to experienced tourism public relations professionals that the best results are achieved when information on a chosen issue is distributed simultaneously by several methods of promotion.