Mario Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s Tourism Minister

During the recent Caribbean Travel Marketplace, CND had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Mario Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s tourism minister and member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. He told us about the priorities of that group and the main working guidelines for the sector in his country, including the goal of becoming a hub country for the region in the airline industry.

Is there anything new about your political career? Could you tell me about it?
Recently, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson appointed me as member of the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board of that country. We took an oath before the secretary of Commerce on the same day that President Obama made important announcements regarding an executive order he had signed to facilitate the tourist visa processing in emerging countries like China and Brazil.

The advisory board has among its objectives to make recommendations to the secretary of Commerce on issues related to tourism and travel; and act as a liaison between the private industry and local governments with the federal government, particularly with the secretary of Commerce.

We meet four times a year and the most important thing is that actions are taken based on the board’s recommendations and one example of this is the most recent decision made by President Obama, whose executive order was the result of the board’s proposals.

This board, is it related in any way with the Cuba travel issue, an opening towards that Caribbean island?
So far, the main issues we have tackled have to do with visa granting, non-immigrant visas, that is, tourist visas, and how to make this process more flexible, how to expand it to other countries that have a direct impact on the U.S. economy.

On the other hand, it seeks to make this system more efficient because there is a “bottleneck” at the U.S. Consulates particularly in China, Brazil and India.

This was the first meeting we took part in, and the subject of Cuba was not brought up, which doesn’t mean that it won’t be raised in future meetings. But yes, it has an indirect impact on that as well because it has a connection with the Visa Waiver Program.

Was the topic of Russia included in those talks? or it just doesn’t fit the proposal?
The executive order applies specifically to China and Brazil, which are the two countries currently facing a bottleneck in the visa granting process. So, they are adding resources to those consulates to speed up by 40 percent, during this year, the process of revising visa applications, to reduce the number of days taken to make the interviews and grant the visas, so that we can see a growth eventually, an increasing demand of visitors from those two countries.

When will be the next meeting?
The next meeting will take place in April during the Pow Wow fair, which will be in Los Angeles, California, this year.

Who are the members of this advisory board?
The board is made up of 32 executives representing different segments of the U.S. tourist industry. For example, there are two airlines represented: the executive vice president of Jet Blue, and US Air; there are different convention bureaus, like those of New Orleans, and Washington DC; also, the aviation commission of Chicago, among others; but there are many segments included in this advisory group. Some of its members have been part of the board before and participated in previous meetings.

For how long will you be a member of the board?
Two years.

Your appointment has nothing to do with politics; neither is it related to the elections.
That’s right; it is a technical executive post.

Among the stances you can take, can you defend any Puerto Rican position?
We did three recommendations. Some of them are shared by other members of the board. One of the points we put forward was to continue improving the efficiency of the visa processing system.

Another very important issue for Puerto Rico is encouraging the reopening of the International in-Transit Lounge, the sterile place we had in many jurisdictions of international airports in the United States, which served as a stopover for flights heading to a country other than the U.S.. The planes flying in didn’t have to go through Customs. After September 11, the department of Homeland Security canceled the International in-Transit Lounge.

This had a huge impact in Puerto Rico. Out of the 16 international airlines that served the island, only five stayed after the closing, being Iberia the most important of them.

Reopening of the International in-Transit Lounge could position Puerto Rico as the central gateway of the Caribbean and Latin America, because we have the infrastructure; so we are in the middle of conversations with different federal agencies. Now that we have this additional voice at the board, we defend our views.

I don’t know if I told you that loosing those airlines represented an annual loss of 30 million dollars for our industry. We are starting to develop new international flights: Condor, from Germany; British Airways; Virgin; West Jet, from Canada; but reopening of the International in-Transit Lounge could position Puerto Rico as the focus country of the Caribbean and Latin America.

The third recommendation, which received wide support and was defended by other colleagues, was in relation to sustainable tourism and green initiatives, and the positive economic impact it has in hotel development and other attractions of the sector, as well as the possibilities of implementing it.

Is that what Puerto Rico is doing in ranches, that segment of rural tourism?
In addition to Puerto Rican roadside hotels that have started using alternative energy sources, bigger lodgings are starting to join green initiatives.

For instance, the Tourism Company has joined the U.S. environmental protection agency for the establishment of an eco-labeling guide for sustainable tourism. We would be the first island of the Caribbean to offer eco-labels through the government, at no cost for lodging facilities, and based on those federal guidelines.

We have created alliances with the federal government of the United States with that aim.
Right now, what we are doing is to offer the ecolabels through third parties, at a cost amounting to up to 5,000 dollars.

These are some of the efforts we have promoted before the board, which have been widely welcomed by other members who are in favor of and have proposed initiatives for sustainable tourism, not only applied to lodgings but also to other tourist attractions and even airports.

Do these eco-labels for green tourism are equivalent to ISO standards, for instance, ecological standards?
Yes, that’s correct. These are guides established by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).  And they obviously establish efficient actions for the use of water, energy, chemicals, the whole system of sustainable tourism is expressed in those guides.

Now in Puerto Rico we are in the process of joining efforts with the private sector, which has shown a lot of interest in implementing those projects.

Could the province of Mayaguez become Puerto Rico’s flagship in this sector?
There are many interested tourist facilities, from small properties like Paradores to deluxe properties like the Bridge. It is a quite wide range.

Who proposes the topics for this board you are part of?
We proposed the topics, and within the next two weeks we’ll have the summary of the ones that will be under discussion this year.

The U.S. government’s choosing Puerto Rico as an access point to Cuba could represent an opportunity to attract transit tourism. Are you planning on taking actions for this process of winning tourists?
We took action because the U.S. government certified the international airport of Puerto Rico, one of the few of the country allowed as a departure point for trips to Cuba.

What we do is to act as facilitators with the private sector. There are U.S.-based businesspeople and companies that want to start flying from Puerto Rico.

Up to now, there has only been one familiarization flight to Cuba, but there are three companies established here. It falls now to the private sector to develop the markets.

Last year, you were informed by the Spanish office of the importance of the Russian market for Puerto Rico, but later this interest seemed to wane. Why do you think that happened?
Well, we have been focusing on our primary and developing markets. And there is a high and positive correlation here between air access and market development. We have had to develop international air access first. We did it in Europe by keeping our link with Iberia. Likewise, we have been developing relations for non-stop flights from England, Germany and Canada to Puerto Rico.

However, we did have a meeting with a Russian tour operator that sells Puerto Rico packages and is interested in expanding the range of real-state property in that market.

The Russian market, its clients get to the Caribbean in charters and commercial flights via London, Great Britain.

Do they also come from Spain?
According to the people we met with it was through London. This is important because British Airways is a feeder market for Moscow-London flights, and then from London they reach Puerto Rico.

These development strategies have to be carefully drawn, that’s why he had to develop air access first, before designing marketing and advertising projects.

We have to spend advertising money in those developing destinations to be able to achieve a progressive demand.

With elections happening this year I can imagine a pause has been made on budgetary matters…
We continue with the same budget we elaborated during the past years. There is a particularity here that is that by law we can’t invest more than 50 percent of the budget in the first six months of the fiscal year.

Our fiscal year is from July 1 to June 30, meaning that from July 1 until December 31 we have to make certain, sticking to the law, that our budget doesn’t exceed the 50  percent.

Have you planned any special action to foster investments, for instance, by Spanish hotel groups that are the most powerful of the world following those from the U.S.? In Puerto Rico, after Meliá’s experience, no other Spanish group has dared to invest.

Last year we met with a few hotel groups and we have made some follow-up on those meetings. We have provided information about different projects and our incentive laws, which are very aggressive, but right now we are just having talks.

Puerto Rico started to grow as a Caribbean culinary destination a few years ago and is becoming stronger with its Saborea Puerto Rico event. Do you think these efforts should be more effective in terms of media coverage and promotion?
Actually we are taking some actions with that aim through our distribution channels. We are closing negotiations with some media outlets to promote the event on the international arena, outside the coasts of Puerto Rico, and working hand-in-hand with the hotel association that currently owns the Saborea brand.

That expansion targets actually the U.S. market, not that of Latin America or Europe.
But with the resources we have in Latin America and Europe, we do are promoting the event.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
What I would like to add is that our experience and the results we saw last year show that we are in the middle of recovering our industry after the economic downturn, of the world financial crisis. This is demonstrated by key tourism indicators: rates, revenue per available room and occupancy.