By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Wednesday that he is in favor of extending the Destination Market Organization (DMO) contract for an additional 10 years, even though the current one has four years left.
“Well, Discover Puerto Rico requested that extension. The Board of Directors, I understand, is in favor of it, and so am I,,” the governor said at a press conference. “The contract amendment is being drafted so that it can be granted.”
“No, I am not involved in that matter, I am not the one who signs those things, that is actually a contract signed by the Tourism Company,” Pierluisi added. “I am aware of it because I do know that Discover Puerto Rico requested that extension, and I know the reason. They are constantly promoting Puerto Rico for events, they can be conferences, conventions, and in many cases that takes years, and they are promoting Puerto Rico beyond 2028. So it is important for them to show that this entity has the support of the government of Puerto Rico and will be in operation again for an extended period of time. So that is the reason for the extension request, the board sees it favorably, I do too, so let us hope that yes, that the matter is settled, the amendment is signed and that Discover Puerto Rico, that is, the DMO, the entity for the management of the district, can continue to have the success it has had.”
Regarding the criticisms that the request has drawn, for example, from Rep. Ángel Matos García, the governor said “in this area, really, no one can even raise a criticism.”
“I mean, it is impossible, because we have had so many achievements that they speak for themselves,” he said. “Representative Matos has had an agenda since Discover Puerto Rico was created, an agenda to attack it, to destroy it, to make it not exist. But he has not managed to convince his peers in the Legislative Assembly and that is why the legislation he has presented has not been approved. But I take his words and his criticisms under the premise that it is obvious, he has no objectivity. In other words, he has lost all objectivity in this matter, because again everything that has to do with tourism has been working excellently well and no one can refute it.”
Puerto Rico Tourism Company Executive Director Carlos Mercado Santiago said: “Here, as the governor said, there are periods in which it is difficult to negotiate, to bring conventions and unions, when their viable operating contract has an expiration date.”
“Let us remember that, like any government contract, there are also some spaces to terminate them at some point, without effect, it is not understood that good service is being provided,” he said. “In this case, yes, we think so, it seems that a vote of confidence is being given in the sense of extending the validity [of the contract]. Here, the terms are not being changed nor are benefits being added. We are practically giving them a space so that they can go and negotiate on meetings and conventions directly, although one sees 2028 as far away, the reality is that it is not like that. The same thing happens to us when we deal with the issue of cruises, since the airlines practically have these negotiations taking place for 24 to 36 months. In this case, that is the space that the airline has been hanging on to. It is rather a validity of terms; they are the same benefits and the same contractual relationship.”
On Tuesday, José Suárez, chairman of the Discover Puerto Rico board of directors, warned that the island economy would lose a great opportunity to grow if the organization’s contract with the Tourism Company is not extended beyond 2028.
“There are more than $52 million in events and conventions after 2028 that are already being put out to tender, and if Discover Puerto Rico’s contract with the Puerto Rico Tourism Company is not extended beyond that year, the Puerto Rican economy will lose a great opportunity to grow,” Suárez said in a written statement.
Suárez stressed that “the renewal is intended solely to benefit the more than 100,000 families who earn their living from tourism.”
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