Sunny Side Up

A warm welcome awaits in remarkably resilient San Juan.

- STEVEN JERMANOK

It’s been almost three years since Category 5 Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, wreaking havoc on the island and leaving most residents without electricity and clean water. Tourism, which accounts for 6.5 percent of Puerto Rico’s gross domestic product, took a beating, with hotels closed for year-long repairs, airlines cutting service and cruise lines shifting itineraries to other Caribbean destinations. Timing for the hurricane couldn’t have been worse, coming on the heels of the government’s announcement in May 2017 that it was unable to pay more than $70 billion in public debt and thus forced to file for bankruptcy. Large protests and a change of government would follow. Then, in January 2020, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the south side of the island, forcing San Juan restaurants to close while power was restored. And as we write this story, coronavirus runs rampant across the globe with severe economic implications for all destinations, including Puerto Rico.

Facing this tidal wave of adversity, most people would assume Puerto Rico’s economy is in dire straits. On the contrary, the island staged a remarkable recovery since Hurricane Maria. Not solely reliant on tourism, Puerto Rico was able to rebound much faster than the Virgin Islands, with employment numbers exceeding pre-hurricane levels within a year of the storm thanks to construction and rebuilding. In July 2018 a destination marketing organization called Discover Puerto Rico was launched to ensure the positive aspects of the island were being reported. This led to Lin-Manuel Miranda bringing his hit play Hamilton to San Juan and led to accolades for the island, such as being named the No. 1 Place to Go in 2019 by The New York Times.