TRAVEL
Puerto Rico Beckons LGBTQ Travelers
New tourism campaign aims to draw queer tourists
BY HEATHER CASSELL
Puerto Rico wants LGBTQ
travelers, especially
transgender and
non-binary individuals,
to visit the Caribbean Island and
“Live Out.”
“The destination has always
been an LGBTQ destination,” Discover
Puerto Rico’s out gay marketing
and special events manager,
José E. Arana Rodriguez, told Gay
City News. The island, Rodriguez
noted, simply did not specifi cally
market to LGBTQ travelers.
Then in 2018 — the same year
the destination management company
launched — gay digital travel
guide GayCities.com named Puerto
Rico “Destination of the Year.”
“It was a natural way for us to
promote the destination to the specifi
c market,” Arana Rodriguez told
Gay City News. “We feel very close
to the LGBTQ community not
only as a market that has money
to spend in the destination, but
also because of the importance of
the LGBTQ community in Puerto
Rican culture.”
Discover Puerto Rico announced
its new LGBTQ travel campaign at
the International Gay and Lesbian
Travel conference in Atlanta, Georgia
in September.
The new campaign in the United
States territory, which is the
birthplace of out gay pop sensation
Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez,
among other celebrities, is more
than just rainbows, fun in the sun,
and good times at America’s popular
Caribbean destination. Puerto
Rico welcomed 553,554 visitors in
July and 512,796 visitors in June
at the peak of last summer’s travel,
according to the tourism bureau.
It could also be a force for change
for the island’s LGBTQ community
if the destination’s promotional
arm has its way.
In the coming months, Discover
Puerto Rico will offi cially launch
“Live Out” to welcome LGBTQ travelers.
Currently, the destination’s LGBTQ
travel page features articles
about queer businesses and locals
A new effort is underway to draw more LGBTQ travelers to Puerto Rico.
as well as ideas of what to do and
where to go on the island to connect
with LGBTQ locals and have a full
queer experience. The businesses
are also promoted to general travelers,
Arana Rodriguez noted.
In October, for example, the
Condado Ocean Club launched
its “Lush” campaign, a vacation
package exclusively for LGBTQ
travelers. Albert Charbonneau, the
59-year-old out gay general manager
at Condado Ocean Club, believes
the island should be “more
out there” given its reputation as a
top LGBTQ destination in the Caribbean.
“We are the capital of the gay
island compared to any other islands”
and it is “a beautiful place
to come,” he said.
Arana Rodriguez agreed, stating,
“We have to be in the forefront
of marketing in promoting the
destination and welcoming the
future visitors of the world.” Arana
Rodriguez pointed to studies
showing that the future of travel is
more gender and sexually diverse
thanks to Millennials and Gen Z.
“We want to position Puerto Rico
as an LGBTQ destination that will
welcome everyone,” he continued,
adding that Discover Puerto Rico
is committed to the island’s LGBTQ
community and the travel
campaign for the long haul.
Even more so, Arana Rodriguez
wants LGBTQ visitors to go home
with a “great experience” that
leaves them wanting to return to
Puerto Rico.
Attracting LGBTQ travelers to
Puerto Rico, however, can come
with challenges. The island has
been battered in recent years, not
only by hurricanes, earthquakes,
the global pandemic, and an insensitive
government, but also by
an epidemic of violence against the
island’s LGBTQ citizens — especially
transgender people.
In 2020, six known transgender
people were murdered on the
island. They were among the total
44 transgender or gender nonconforming
people killed in the US
last year, according to the Human
Rights Campaign.
The tragedies were possibly
a tipping point for Puerto Rico’s
LGBTQ community, which reeled
from heightened violence fueled by
anti-LGBTQ attitudes and rhetoric
spewed by former Puerto Rican
Governor Ricardo Rosselló. Rosselló
stepped down after weeks of
intense demonstrations calling for
his resignation after Puerto Rico’s
Center for Investigative Journalism
exposed homophobic and sexist
chats between him and his top
DISCOVER PUERTO RICO
aides.
Despite Rosselló’s resignation,
homophobic and sexist beliefs held
by some of Puerto Rico’s government
leaders and Puerto Ricans
remain, even though the island
ranks 20th out of 50 states and
territories for LGBTQ rights regarding
progress toward LGBTQ
equality, according to the LGBT
Map, which monitors and ranks
the progress of LGBTQ rights in
the US.
Puerto Rican human rights
activist Pedro Julio Serrano expressed
mixed feelings about the
campaign.
“It’s a great campaign. I would
love for Puerto Rico to not only welcome
everyone and our LGBTQ+
people and gender variant and
non-binary people, but we need to
make it safe for people living here,”
the 47-year-old out gay leader said
about Puerto Rico’s anti-LGBTQ
problems, from elected offi cials
spewing anti-gay rhetoric to the
epidemic of violence against the
community.
Violence against LGBTQ Puerto
Ricans, especially transgender
people, got so bad on the island,
Puerto Rico’s new governor, Pedro
Pierluisi, signed an executive order
➤ PUERTO RICO, continued on p.19
NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 1, 2 18 021 | GayCityNews.com
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