Puerto Rico is launching a new marketing campaign aimed at travelers who have been forced to postpone or cancel trips because they couldn’t obtain a passport in time.
“No Passport, No Problem” will be launched next month and aims to remind Americans that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, so no passport is required to travel there.
“About one-third of Americans do not know that Puerto Rico does not require a passport,” said Leah Chandler, marketing director of Discover Puerto Rico.
The campaign comes at a time when the number of Americans traveling is increasing. More than 46 million Americans traveled abroad in the first six months of 2023, a 32% increase compared to the same period in 2022, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office.
But the wait time to obtain a passport is between 10 and 13 weeks.
The “No Passport, No Problem” campaign will include a landing page showcasing “must-see” attractions in Puerto Rico and selected itineraries for different types of travelers; social media marketing and partnerships with content creators and airlines, including Frontier Airlines.
The local tourism agency, Discover Puerto, will also offer some free trips. Travelers can win them by sharing their stories online with the hashtag #passportdelay. “This fall, we will be looking for people who lost vacations because they did not receive their passport in time and we will reward them with a trip to Puerto Rico,” said Chandler.
Last year, Puerto Rico’s travel and tourism sector generated $8.9 billion in revenue, a 39% increase compared to 2019.
There have been several high-profile incidents that have shown that many Americans do not know that Puerto Rico is part of the mainland, Chandler said. One such incident that received a lot of attention was when a Puerto Rican man had a prepaid reservation with Hertz denied on the U.S. mainland after company employees said his driver’s license was not valid in the country.
The government of Puerto Rico plans to add “Puerto Rico USA” to driver’s licenses to avoid future incidents.
Source: Skift