Skift Aviation Forum: Building New Airline Connections in Puerto Rico

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

In this video:

• A campaign that captures island spirit: Its “Live Boricua” campaign helps Discover Puerto Rico capitalize on what consumers want from travel products in the current climate and make strong, impactful connections with the island locales they visit.
• Meeting new traveler desires and expectations: How the agency is meeting travelers’ desires to travel to more remote mountains and beach locations, including implementing more connecting flights from Ponce and Aguadilla that quickly move passengers across the 100×30-mile island.
• Funding updates: How Discover Puerto Rico is using federal relief funds to support tourism marketing after Hurricane Fiona and how the island prepared for these natural weather events.
• Making Puerto Rico more accessible: Which cities have new direct flights to the island and why the agency sees massive potential in the Texas and Midwest aviation markets.

Despite major infrastructure challenges from Hurricane Maria in 2017, difficulty accessing federal funds to rebuild, and a subsequent global pandemic that thwarted travel, Puerto Rico has emerged as a shining example of industry resilience. Using its unique position as a U.S. territory where 80 percent of pre-pandemic visitation came from mainlanders and embracing Covid safety protocols, the island strategically built out offerings and infrastructure to take travelers where they really want to go — deeper into the island and to its national parks and remote beach locations.

In this video from Skift Aviation Forum 2022, we hear from Alisha Valentine, director of research and analytics at Discover Puerto Rico, in conversation with Jeremy Kressmann, SkiftX’s head of studio, about what travelers want right now, which aviation markets hold the most promise for Puerto Rico, and how the island’s tourism professionals make sure every visitor can “Live Boricua.”

This content was created collaboratively by Discover Puerto Rico and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.