While anyone who pays attention to daily news reports knows that Hurricane Maria did devastating damage to Puerto Rico last year and that some areas still don’t have electricity, there is a surprising success story to be shared about the island’s meeting industry.

The 600,000-square-foot Puerto Rico Convention Center (PRCC) did about 30 percent more business during the first half of 2018 than it did in the same periods in 2017 and 2016—before Hurricane Maria ever happened.

“I would call this Maria’s silver lining,” says Jorge L. Perez, general manager of the convention center, which has been open and hosting everything from concerts to international conventions since January.

He says a number of key factors fell into place to make possible a PRCC rebound that actually grew the facility’s business while other parts of the island were still in recovery mode.

One major piece of good fortune was that Maria did no serious damage to the center.

“We were back up and operating within 48 to 72 hours,” Perez says.

Because the PRCC was in such good shape, FEMA (the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency) rented out and took over the entire convention center from Sept. 25 through Dec. 24 as the headquarters for its efforts to restore the island—which is a U.S. territory and has been since the 19th Century.

But Perez says the surges in convention center business he is reporting do not include that three-month 100 percent occupancy by FEMA.The convention business surge came between January of this year and June (which is the end of the center’s fiscal year).

He attributes that business upswing to two factors.

“Immediately after the storm, people on our island were eager to get out of their houses, do social activities with each other and have fun again,” Perez says.

That fueled an upswing in attendance to the sporting events and concerts that have been growing in number since AEG Facilities took over management of the PRCC two years ago.

The second key factor driving the convention center’s surge was the increase in international meetings and conventions booking Puerto Rico as their destination for 2018.

“We had groups that wanted to book Puerto Rico specifically because they wanted to help us recover,” Perez says.

In March, the PRCC hosted hosted its largest international convention in years with The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), featuring 2,000 participants from 150 countries.

“As early as January 2018 Puerto Rico was SUPER open for business,” Perez says. “We demonstrated [this] by hosting our first major convention after Hurricane María—the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Caribbean Travel Marketplace. More than 1,052 global delegates from Brazil to Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States (to name a few) attended Marketplace and experienced the hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and culture of Puerto Rico.”

Other significant milestones at the PRCC in 2018 have included events ranging from a 25,000-attendee concert by the music groups Bad Bunny and Trap Kingz (a concert attendance record) to the 40,000-attendee Puerto Rico Comic Con in May—also setting an attendance record.

A factor in the success of these events is the tourism and hotel infrastructure in Old San Juan—the downtown area that is within walking distance of the PRCC was up and running by the beginning of 2018 (and many of the venues well before then).

“The attendees for these events said we hit it out of the park for them, and now it’s our job to share this story with the world,” Perez says.

That job became easier in the spring of this year with the creation of a new official destination marketing organization (DMO)—Discover Puerto Rico, headed by veteran industry professional Brad Dean, who for 15 years was CEO of the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Dean hit the ground running in March with a focused plan to spread the word about Puerto Rico’s rebound. He put together an advisory board of industry veterans including Sherrif Karamat, president and CEO of PCMA, David Dubois, president and CEO of IAEE, and Steven Paganelli, director, Americas for TripAdvisor.

“Puerto Rico is up and running with over 132 hotels, more than 4,000 restaurants and 189 attractions open right now, available for visitor enjoyment,” Dean said recently. “We offer state-of-the-art meeting and convention facilities with the largest and the most technologically advanced convention center in the Caribbean, and this growing sector is a major priority as investments continue. We have exciting plans for 2019 including a five-acre hospitality and entertainment district built by Island Hospitality Partners (led by PRISA Group) and the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority. ‘District San Juan’ is forecasted to be an incredibly vibrant space for conventions and performances.”

The PRCC will roll out the $125 million District San Juan, across the street from the convention center, in the second half of next year with a state-of-the-art concert/event/performance venue with a capacity of up to 6,000 spectators; an eight-screen premium Cineplex managed by Caribbean Cinemas; a 177-room Aloft Hotel by Marriott; a 23,000-square-foot “day and night” club; television and radio broadcast studios overlooking the central plaza; a unique urban attraction created by renowned “zip line” operators Toro Verde; and more than 15 bars, lounges, fast casual eateries, full-service restaurants and other entertainment experiences. The entire project will be oriented around a 44,000-square-foot central plaza with the Caribbean’s largest LED screen and an outdoor presentation stage integrating the latest in lighting and technology to serve as host to a variety of programming, including daily lighting and technology shows, art festivals, fashion shows, music performances and other events.

Puerto Rico is currently getting good reviews from outside meeting and event planners who have made site visits there.

Joe Martin, president elect of the MPI Southern California and partner and director of conferences at BDI Events, Los Angeles, says he went there for a site visit in March and found that “everything you need for a successful event is up and running there now. Don’t get me wrong, there are still areas that were badly hurt on that island and they still need our help, but just about all of the major hotels there are back up and running and others will be by the end of this year.”

Martin says his visit to Puerto Rico resulted in his booking an event there for 2019.