Tourism in Puerto Rico

Tourism in Puerto Rico attracts millions of visitors each year, with more than 5.1 million passengers arriving at the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in 2022 (a 6.5% increase from 2021),^[1] the main point of arrival into the island of Puerto Rico. With a $8.9 billion revenue in 2022 (a 39% increase over the previous high in 2019),^[2] tourism has been a very important source of revenue for Puerto Rico for a number of decades given its favorable warm climate, beach destinations and its diversity of natural wonders, cultural and historical sites, festivals, concerts and sporting events. As Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, U.S. citizens do not need a passport to enter Puerto Rico, and the ease of travel attracts many tourists from the mainland U.S. each year.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria caused severe damage to the island and its infrastructure. The damage was estimated at $100 billion. An April 2019 report indicated that by that time, only a few hotels were still closed, that life for tourists in and around the capital had, for the most part, returned to normal.^[1] By October 2019, nearly all of the popular amenities for tourists, in the major destinations such as San Juan, Ponce and Arecibo, were in operation on the island and tourism was rebounding. This was important for the economy, since tourism provides up 10% of Puerto Rico's GDP, according to Discover Puerto Rico.^[3] The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, however, greatly affected this gradual recovery,^[4] and it was not until 2022 that tourism numbers would demonstrate a concrete recovery of the tourism industry in the island.^[2][5]