Puerto Rico unveiled a U.S. marketing campaign for the upcoming winter and peak tourism season through June that combines traditional marketing tactics with an emphasis on social media, smartphone apps and a revamped website.
The destination's "Puerto Rico Does It Better" slogan, introduced last year, has served the island well, according to Mario Gonzalez-Lafuente, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Co.
He reported that the slogan has driven awareness of the destination and that the accompanying campaign was responsible for resurgence in U.S. visitors, helping to boost the local economy.
Through last June, when Puerto Rico's 2011 fiscal year ended, hotel revenue per available room increased 5.8% and the average daily rate jumped 4.3% compared with the same time period in 2010.
The launch of the $20 million U.S. tourism campaign, which runs through next June, makes use of nine electronic billboards in New York's Times Square to display the new advertisements, which feature images of tourists enjoying activities such as golf, snorkeling and gaming. The current ads offer a variation on the "Does It Better" theme, declaring that "We Do Winter Better."
Ads also appear on traditional billboards as well as in airports, bus shelters and print consumer and trade publications in major U.S. markets.
The PRTC unveiled the Times Square billboards during the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center earlier this month.
Gonzalez-Lafuente described the event as "giving viewers a spectacular look at the island of Puerto Rico."
Also pushing awareness of the destination was the Dec. 16 concert performance by Yanni at El Morro, the historical fort in Old San Juan. The concert will be broadcast by PBS next year.
The show was part of the PRTC's new push into social media; it was promoted online via a sweepstakes on Facebook that awarded two grand prize trips for a Puerto Rico vacation and tickets for the concert, according to Gonzalez-Lafuente.
Also boosting Puerto Rico's visibility in the tourism sector is the growth of its hospitality industry, expected to top more than $1 billion in 20 new hotel developments, renovations and conversions in 2012 and beyond.
New properties are expected to add 2,100 more rooms to the guestroom inventory of 13,200 rooms in 155 properties, according to the PRTC.
Several of the properties already have been certified as "green" by several associations, including the Green Hotels Association, Green Globe, Audubon International and the U.S. Green Building Council, due to their commitment to the environment and ecological standards.
Due to debut in 2012 on Ashford Avenue in San Juan is the 305-room Condado Vanderbilt. It will open on the site of the original property of the same name built in 1919 by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who used the architects who designed Grand Central Station in New York.
The restored hotel will offer butler services in 120 suites, 15,000 square feet of meetings space, four restaurants, a spa and a pool complex.
In its heyday, the Condado Vanderbilt was a socialite hangout and served as the home base for Charles Lindbergh when he was flying around the Caribbean for Pan American World Airways.
When gambling was legalized in Puerto Rico in 1940, the Condado Vanderbilt was the first hotel in San Juan to feature a casino. The restored property, however, will not have gaming facilities.
The original hotel closed in 1997, and reconstruction began in 2003.
The Condado will open in January as a venue for local business meetings, groups and weddings -- the first nuptials were scheduled for Jan. 5 -- and the official opening date for guestrooms and the remainder of the hotel's facilities will follow later in the year.
Hotel upgrades also include the recent $2.2 million lobby renovation project at the San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, which was unveiled on Dec. 9.
Gone is the traditional lobby of old. In its place is the Great Room, an area composed of individual zones for conversations, meetings and late-night gatherings of friends over tapas and drinks.
On track to open late next year is Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve on the grounds of the former Dorado Beach property, which was first developed by Laurance Rockefeller in the 1950s, 22 miles west of San Juan.
Fairmont will roll out its brand in Puerto Rico with the 2013 planned opening of its 500-room hotel on the site of the former Hyatt Regency Cerromar, which closed in 2003.
The Hilton Ponce Golf & Casino Resort is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation, scheduled for completion in time for the resort's 20th anniversary in 2012.
The Ramada Ponce Hotel is undergoing a $19 million expansion, which will add a casino to the 70-room boutique property.
Visit www.seepuertorico.com.
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