Since 1962, Meet Puerto Rico has provided sales, consultation and support services to meeting planners in corporate, incentive and association markets. They recently hired a specialist to work with travel agencies organizing group of up to 50 rooms.

Through the initiative, Meet Puerto Rico is providing its program of services to travel agencies handling groups, particularly in the destination wedding market. Milton Segarra, the organization’s president, recently met with TravelPulse to discuss the new initiative and the support it provides for professional travel consultants.

TravelPulse: What kind of organization is Meet Puerto Rico?

Milton Segarra: Meet Puerto Rico is a non-profit private organization which, one year ago, was known as Puerto Rico Convention Bureau. Within the last eight months the name has been changed to Meet Puerto Rico. It’s a member-based organization; we have around 217 members who are suppliers, from hotels to airlines to transportation companies, restaurants, florists, photographers, speaker and wedding planners. You name it. We strive to partner with tourism clients and provide the best service so we can so that their meeting or event in Puerto Rico will be a total success.

The effort we put in contributes $122 million annually in direct spending to our country, which is a sizeable contribution to an industry that is as important as tourism is to Puerto Rico. The entire tourism industry contribution is around six percent of our gross national product.

TP: What led Meet Puerto Rico to assign a professional to work with travel agencies?

MS: Many small [agency] groups reached out to us for support, so we decided to assign a specific person to handle all groups of 50 rooms or less, which is the size of group you will see managed by a travel agent.

Raiza Robles is our travel agent specialist and dedicates herself to be available for travel agents and other clients of 50 rooms or less. We feel very happy and confident, because it is proven. Since we started eight months ago, the results have been very positive. We have booked a significant bit of business from travel agent segments.

TP: What types of services are you providing for travel agencies?

MS: One areas travel agencies are becoming more and more involved with Meet Puerto Rico is in destination weddings. They contact us and we help to connect them with the hotel, or resort of their selection, and work in tandem with them to make this wedding involving 25 to 30 to 40 or more people a success. The travel agent and the wedding coordinators are the key people in the process and we provide all of the links to suppliers and services to make their event successful.

TP: What do you see as Meet Puerto Rico’s primary goal?

MS: Our most important goal at this point in any direction we decide to take is to make sure we solidify our position as a tropical island in the Caribbean where no passport is required for U.S. citizens. Traveling here from the U.S. is as easy and simple as traveling from New York to California. You just show your driver’s license to go to Puerto Rico. If you are looking for a hotel or a beautiful beachfront resort, or a convention center – any venue – we have those, like any main city in the States, the difference being that we are a tropical island in the Caribbean.

We can balance world class facilities, from hotels to transportation to communications, you name it, with our tropical and exquisite setting, and it’s a totally different ballgame. Everything we are doing is directed to that. If we are able to solidify our branding as such, then we have a winner.

TP: What do you view as Puerto Rico’s strength as a tourist destination compared with other popular Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic and Jamaica?

MS: Our hats are off to the other successful destinations. They have done a terrific job and that is good for the region. What they have done means more people will visit the region, and that creates a situation where if you are good, you will take the best market share.

Having said that, in terms of meeting space square footage and access to Puerto Rico there is no comparison. You know it’s less than two hours from Miami and less than three hours and 45 minutes from New York. Combine that with the diverse product offering and one more thing that none of the others can offer: There is no passport required for U.S. citizens.

Also, it’s the same currency. The mail system and the communications systems are exactly the same. That becomes a real advantage when making a decision on where to go. Also, despite the economic downturn we have all been living through in the last few years, we have been able to generate investments for new hotels and to re-vamp and renovate most of the key hotels in Puerto Rico. We have a fresh product. In the last five years we have been able to develop a second-to-none network of luxury hotels and resorts. I can pinpoint for you, from east to west, eight to 10 different hotels that are second-to-none in the world, including the Dorado Beach, A Ritz Carlton Reserve, twenty-two miles west of San Juan and The St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort, is located on the northeastern corridor of the island, at the foot of the El Yunque National Forest. Ritz Carlton also has a phenomenal resort in Isla Verde, one of the most vibrant tourism sectors in Puerto Rico. A hedge fund group has acquired the Condado Vanderbilt for $262 million. This is one of the great hotels of the city that represents luxury at its best. The investments have happened because there is a fertile, good base of opportunity in Puerto Rico’s tourism industry. I’m sure people realize that.