December 14, 2017

Yesterday the Puerto Rican government declared Puerto officially ‘open for tourism’. According to the San Juan Star, an English language newspaper here, more than 100 hotels are open, as are more than 4,000 restaurants. There are 60 excursions for cruise ship passengers to choose from. I wonder if this includes the guy who hangs around the piers with an iguana, charging a few bucks to have his picture taken. There will be more than 70 port calls by various cruise ships between now and the end of January. Nearly 100,000 passengers will arrive and start and end their cruises on the four or five ships home ported here, again by the end of January.

As if on cue, two large cruise ships came into port yesterday afternoon, the Holland America Eurodam and the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas. The tour busses were lined up, as were the vendors stalls along the pier and through much of Old San Juan. Passengers had to be back on board at about 10 PM so the cruise people had time to wander around Old San Juan. The Walgreens and CVS pharmacies were both busy. I’m not sure what the attraction is but the two waterfront locations are busy every time a cruise ship is in port.

Tour busses lined up waiting for cruise ship passengers to disembark.

Before IrMaria, tourism accounted for about 16% of the island’s economy, which is less than I would have thought. The biggest sector is manufacturing, at about 48%, and pharmaceuticals figure heavily in that category. Puerto Rico has become a packaging center for drug companies, who ship their products here for packaging for final distribution. There was concern that, after IrMaria, there would be a shortage of some drugs; fortunately, that was not the case.

The government wants to grow tourism to about 20% of the economy. That seems doable to me, but I wonder how tourism in Cuba will affect tourism here. I can see Cuba competing for cruise ship port calls and otherwise attempt to attract tourists there.

Vendors set up along the pier waiting to serve cruise ship passengers.

But that is in the future. Right now, it seems tourists (and their dollars) are more than welcome.