One Year Post-Maria: ExpertFlyer Discovers Firsthand How a Determined Community Fueled Puerto Rico's Epic Comeback

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- As Carolinians begin to recover from Hurricane Florence, the residents of Puerto Rico have put out the welcome mat one year after Hurricane Maria ravaged the U.S. territory. ExpertFlyer.com had an opportunity to visit Puerto Rico and witness one of the greatest tourism comebacks in history. Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico, went One-on-One with ExpertFlyer to share the island's amazing turnaround story and their new campaign, #CoverTheProgress.

To offer some examples of Puerto Rico's incredible recovery since "Maria," the island now has 132 hotel options available for guests with another 4,000 rooms set to be ready for booking shortly. They now have 28 airlines serving an average of 110 flights daily and restaurants and other attractions have quickly rebounded. It has hosted 1.2 million cruise passengers since Maria and now has 14 ships currently home-porting in the Port of San Juan. Tourism accounts for approximately 10% of the island's GDP, but Brad Dean knows better than most that the value of its recovery extends far beyond dollars and cents.

"We believe Puerto Rico is writing a comeback story like the tourism industry has never seen, and we are all very excited to be part of it," Brad Dean said during his interview with ExpertFlyer. "There is a perception that Puerto Rico is not ready to play host to tourists but as ExpertFlyer has seen firsthand, we are ready and more than able."

The first task of Discover Puerto Rico, a marketing organization established on July 1, 2018 and spearheaded by Dean, was to confront and combat the perception that Puerto Rico was still an island in distress. The message would be heard around the world and not through slick advertising campaigns. Instead, the message came directly from the people of Puerto Rico.

"Instead of simply running an advertising campaign, we worked with the local community," Mr. Dean explained. "It was a sentiment of the local community that they're ready to turn the page and stop talking about what Maria did to us and start talking about what we're doing after Maria."

Based on the unique approach of using actual citizens in its campaign, #CoverTheProgress was an attempt to inform travelers about what they can expect to see in Puerto Rico today. The campaign centered around the community of Punta Santiago, the hardest hit by the storm and the focus of TV cameras around the world. A year ago the streets were lined with desperate signs for help in the form of "SOS." Today, those same streets proudly display a single word – Bienvenidos, which means Welcome in Spanish.

"The recovery of Puerto Rico is an incredible story of survival and pride," said Chris Lopinto, president and co-founder of ExpertFlyer.com. "The financial and emotional effort Americans and others around the world displayed a year ago was inspirational. The best way to show them our support today is pay them a visit."

To learn more about how Puerto Rico got its mojo back after Hurricane Maria, listen to the podcast with Brad Dean at Discover Puerto Rico at ExpertFlyer's blog.

About Discover Puerto Rico
Discover Puerto Rico is a newly established private, not for-profit enterprise whose mission is to make Puerto Rico visible to the world as a premier travel destination. The DMO will bring prosperity to the people of Puerto Rico by collaboratively positioning the Island's diversity and uniqueness for leisure, business and events. It is responsible for all global marketing, sales and promotion of the destination and must work collaboratively with key local governmental and non-governmental stakeholders throughout Puerto Rico's visitor economy and community at large, while powering economic growth.

About ExpertFlyer.com
Each month, ExpertFlyer's One-on-One blog goes face-to-face with the travel industry's leading decision makers to discuss and address topics relevant to many of today's business and frequent travelers.

ExpertFlyer.com was conceived and created by an eclectic team consisting of a veteran elite tier frequent flyer, an airline captain and corporate travel manager, and information technology professionals to deliver a 24/7 real time powerful air travel information service. The company provides its subscribers and corporate travel managers alike with a complete, concise and efficient way to access the ever-changing details of worldwide air travel information. For more information, please visit expertflyer.com.

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SOURCE pr-synergy.com