Meet Puerto Rico kicks off fiscal year with full activities calendar but awaits name change

Destination marketing organisation Meet Puerto Rico (MPR), says the new fiscal year already has a full sales calendar, including activities in major markets in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. The destination marketing organisation (DMO)’s president and CEO Milton Segarra says the organisation and its partners will undertake 60 sales and promotional events, including trade fairs, press trips and networking activities, in cities such as Frankfurt, Barcelona, Mexico City, Chicago, Orlando, Las Vegas, Toronto and Montego Bay. Segarra said that during 2016, Meet Puerto Rico attracted 220 groups to the island, generating an economic impact of approximately $120m. Historically, Puerto Rico has had two tourism bodies – the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC), that handles leisure tourism and is funded by the government and is a membership organisation, and the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau (called Meet Puerto Rico – MPR). Earlier this year new Governor Ricardo Rossello signed a law that led to the creation of a single DMO and it will in future handle both leisure and meetings/MICE. The name of the new DMO and official date of launch remains to be decided. “We are confident that implementing the [new] DMO will be of great benefit to our industry, but at the same time it is crucial to continue maximising our sales efforts during this transition period so that the industry will be strengthened and ready for exponential growth once the new organisation officially takes over,” said Segarra.