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Municipalities are looking to capitalize on the revenue generated by the Junte Boricua initiative, which plans to infuse $75 million into the local economy by welcoming 50,000 Puerto Ricans residing in the United States from May 1st to August 31st.

What the town halls expect is to alleviate the fiscal impacts they have suffered in recent years, due to budget cuts, hurricanes, earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic, which also caused mass migration.

To achieve this, they must catapult their efforts into coordinating the promotional campaign for their destinations, together with the celebration of more than a hundred activities that will take place in this four-month period, in order to create unique experiences that increase the tourist base of 2.5 million and 3 million who visit the Island annually.

According to the director of Economic Development and Tourism of the Municipality of San Juan, Daphne Barbeito, “practically, half the tourists who visit us on the Island are of Puerto Rican descent, what is known as the diaspora.”

“San Juan, being the capital city, receives between 85% to 90% of the total number of tourists who visit our Island. They enter through San Juan at the international airport and then, especially the diaspora, go visit other municipalities, and impact these municipalities on the Island,” she noted.

One of the focuses of Junte Boricua is, precisely, to expand the possibilities so that each municipality receives a greater number of visitors than those that generally arrive during a “low season of tourists that come from abroad.”

Enjoy the special GFR Media project that also includes the journalistic work of more than three years around the 78 municipalities of the Puerto Rican archipelago.

Barbeito expressed that “what Junte Boricua is creating are experiences… It’s not that type of tourist who arrives at the Island, stays in a hotel, and just eats at interesting restaurants. To this, you add an additional level, because there will be events that different municipalities are going to promote.”

“The tourist who comes looking for the Puerto Rican experience gets it. But what Junte does is add that specific cultural element on particular dates. By the way, our low season for tourists coming from abroad is from May to August. This instead becomes high season for local tourists,” she indicated.

“It’s a good time for this type of event, which not only brings specific experiences for those who want to come enjoy the Junte, but it’s also a good time to receive the volume of tourists that the Island needs to generate more income,” she added.

According to Barbeito, to increase this initiative’s chances of success, municipalities must monitor several aspects, including health, safety, and ornamentation.

“When you travel to a destination, there are two important elements that you look out for. First, you want to go to a place where, in terms of health, there aren’t many complications and, obviously, Puerto Rico flourishes in that regard. To that, the municipalities must be on alert because they will be receiving visitors at a significant volume,” she said.

“The other part is security, which obviously each municipality must address. There must be an effort to decorate, to beautify the public areas, not only where the events are going to take place, but in the municipality in general because, today, tourists don’t go to such specific traditional places, as they did before. “People travel to live like a local, they want to do what the locals do,” she added.

Another important aspect, Barbeito highlighted, is that each municipality must establish an alliance with the organization in charge of the events and “create a campaign, through the Junte or individually, in which they can present the best they have to offer.”

“It is important that the Junte serves as a platform to not only promote the municipality regularly, but, for example, that we start promoting the 2025 Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián, our San Juan chinchorreo and other festivals that are being made for the enjoyment, not only of visitors, but also of the locals,” she argued.

For his part, Luis Javier Hernández-Ortiz, president of the Asociación de Alcaldes (Mayors’ Association) and municipal executive of Villalba, said that “apart from the fact that Junte Boricua is a necessary effort to intertwine and continue intertwining our ties with the diaspora, it also helps develop tourism and the economy of our towns.”

“Due to the fiscal cuts, the challenges we have had to face, the economic inequality that exists in many of them, especially in the mountainous area, the municipalities have resorted to tourism, particularly, or making themselves known so people visit them,” he expressed.

He also highlighted that some municipalities have already established ties with the diaspora to increase their participation levels.

“I believe that [Junte Boricua] strengthens those ties and lets it be known that Puerto Rico is more than just the metropolitan area. There are many other areas, whether in the center, the west, the south, the east, that can be developed, and I believe that all municipalities are going to make the most of that. Other efforts have been made, developed specifically for tourism, which were successful, and I am sure that Junte Boricua will continue that example,” he said.

“Using the diaspora to strengthen that tie, that bond that exists in each one of the towns and promote, whether through tourism, economic development and many other areas, this Junte Boricua is, I think, a very successful step toward that,” concluded Hernández-Ortiz.