Puerto Rico Tourism Suffers Post Hurricane Maria

Puerto Rico’s main airport recently resumed full operations. Most of the island’s casinos are open. Countless restaurants are also back in business, albeit with limited menus.

It has been about one month since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and the island is slowly recovering. But the tourists that are so vital to the island’s economy have yet to return, according to an Associated Press report.

“It’s like a ghost town,” 57-year-old Mike Maione, from Flanders, New Jersey, told the Associated Press. “We’ve been here a number of times before and the place is usually just crawling with tourists, but there’s nobody here.”

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Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20. The Category 4 storm left more than 50 people dead. The entire island was also without power in the aftermath and more than a month later, roughly 30 percent of customers have power. Gov. Ricardo Rossello has said 95 percent of customers will have power by December 31.

Elon Musk’s tech company, Tesla, is busily helping to rebuild the island’s energy grid. The company started work earlier this month with the first of what will be a long list of solar and storage projects in the U.S. territory, UPI reported. Already the company’s efforts have resulted in restoring power to the children’s hospital in San Juan.

At the same time, about 70 percent of the island’s communication network has been restored, according to the Associated Press. Water service is also nearly back to normal, with 70 percent of that service restored as well.

Old San Juan's colonial-era historic buildings remain intact, mostly unharmed by the hurricane. Cruise ships have also begun visiting the island again.

This should be good news for the island’s tourism industry. However many travelers, unsure what to expect, have canceled plans to visit. A full recovery from Maria will hinge in large part on how fast tourists return.

In a typical year, Puerto Rico attracts more than five million visitors who spend nearly $4 billion. The industry creates jobs for more than 80,000 people.

Visitors arriving now, however, will find about one-third of the island’s hotels remain closed. In addition, beaches are closed to swimming because of potential water contamination.

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These are all issues that must be addressed as the island’s high season for tourism approaches.

“We want Puerto Rico to be more like New Orleans post-Katrina and Detroit post-financial crisis,” Jose Izquierdo, executive director of Puerto Rico’s government Tourism Company, told Associated Press.

Although Izquierdo added that he is hoping for a faster timeline than both of those two examples.

“We don’t want to give up entirely on the high season,” he said.