Puerto Rico was able to turn around the disaster of Hurricane Maria into a positive after bringing in a new tourism marketing organisation.
Leah Chandler, chief marketing officer of Discover Puerto Rico, told the Global Resilience Summit how the Caribbean Island has successfully tackled perceptions following the 2017 disaster.
Maria, the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, caused widespread death and devastation across Puerto Rico and a humanitarian crisis as people lost their homes and livelihoods.
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Discover Puerto Rico was formed four months before the first anniversary of the disaster which Chandler described as “the elephant in the room” which it could not ignore.
“We sought to flip the narrative, to challenge the media to cover the progress that was taking place,” Chandler said. “We made sure Maria did not define Puerto Rico.
The media was invited back to the coastal town of Punta Santiago that became world famous in the aftermath of Maria after its surviving residents painted an SOS message on the street.
Chandler said the CNN update of the progress the town had made generated “immense traction” and “it went from there”.
“At the one year anniversary mark we hoped we’d get 20% positive coverage. We ended up having 70% positive coverage. Interest in the destination really exploded across the news channels.”
Puerto Rico has since been named in many “top places to visit” lists as well as being featured on numerous TV shows and estimates that its pubic relations has generated one billion impressions and $15 million worth of earned media.
Chandler said not for profit Discover Puerto Rico was the first attempt to take politics out of the country’s tourism marketing. She said she quickly realised it needed a consistent message and access to research.
“To be able to define a brand from our competitors it was critical we developed a brand for the long-haul. We repositioned the story to unlock true support of the people of the island; who we have been and who are we about to become.
“It took a strategy and a story, but most importantly it took people to become change makers for our island, not just a comeback story but a ‘where to’ story and one we are still writing.”
Putting the people, culture and heritage of the island at the heart of the strategy meant that local entrepreneurialism is also being encouraged and Puerto Ricans who left to live in the US are now coming back.
Reflecting this, Airbnb holiday rentals have grown 30% in recent months, said Chandler. “What you can do when you start to see that developing is grab on and take the ride.
“For us, we have the type of product that really supports this transformational alternative tourism – it’s sustainability and eco-tourism. It’s in contrast to mass market tourism.
“We have that too if you want it – come on a cruise ship or fly and flop in one of our resorts – but there’s such an opportunity to get outside that and experience things like local hosts do.”
Puerto Rico is developing a sustainable tourism model under which hotels are signing up to a certification scheme and to disperse tourism to more remote parts of the island away from San Juan.
And Chandler said it is using the diaspora in major US cities and regions like New York and Orlando to be a part of its future. “The diaspora population is bigger in the US than it is on the island. We want them to come back and be excited about what’s happening on the island.”
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